


Who is Coach Yuuri?

by glitteryimagay



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: #Suffering, Aged-Up Character(s), He coaches three teenage boys, Identity Reveal, M/M, Retirement AU, Victor and Yuuri are married af, Victor is olympic choreographer, Yuuri is a coach, dumb boys who don't use Google, oblivious characters, they live in America
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9300086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitteryimagay/pseuds/glitteryimagay
Summary: Nix, Fish and Frankie were over the moon when they were told they were chosen by skating legend Victor Nikiforov himself to be taught at his rink in America. But upon arriving, they are informed Victor was asked last minute to be the choreographer for the Olympic US Skating Team and instead, they will be taught by the rink's head coach, who they know nothing about!Day one finds them meeting an exhausted-looking chunkier Asian man with more scruff than face and black hair tied up in a messy bun. He introduces himself only as Yuuri and immediately gets down to business with a stern, gruff coaching style akin to that of a drill sergeant. Just who is Coach Yuuri and why was he of all people chosen to be head coach?!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(OR the aged-up au where three oblivious teenage boys are clueless when it comes to famous people in the skating world and don't realize their coach is actually just as famous as the rink owner)(OR OR the au where yuuri is suffering 24/7 dealing with a trio of absolute idiot skating nerds)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written BEFORE skygem's amazing retirement prompt au, hence why its not following the prompt, but its really cool how many similar ideas we had! Retirement AUs are literally the bread and butter of the Victuuri fandom and its so great to see all the new fics coming out! <3

“Hey! I know you!” a loud voice screeched followed by the sound of blades sliding across the ice. The shaggy black haired young man with blue eyes turned to see the source of the loud voice. A magenta haired short Latino boy was making his way across the ice, finger outstretched and pointed in the young man’s direction.

“Hello! What are you? Deaf? We skated against each other at the Eastern Great Lakes Regional Competition. You’re Phoenix Aisner, right?” The shorter boy continued, having come to stop in front of the young man.

Phoenix rubbed at his arms, trying to bring warmth back into them before suddenly his face lit up in recognition. “Oh yeah, I remember you. Xavier…Fisk…right?” He said pausing awkwardly as he thought.

“Hell yeah, that’s me! Dude, you had a nasty spin combo. Sucks you flubbed those two jumps though. Totally would have given me a run for my money otherwise,” Xavier rambled on, waving his arms about animatedly as he spoke.

Suddenly, another pair of skates could be heard entering the rink and the two young men looked up to watch as a brown haired tan Italian boy solemnly made his way towards them. He gave them both a nod in greeting before turning to stand beside them in silence.

“What the hell?! Is that you Frankie?!” Xavier yelled, making his way over to the tall teenager. The boy, whose face before had been stoic and neutral, morphed into a look of pure annoyance before he unfolded his crossed arms.

“How many times have I told you?! My name is Francis! Not Frankie!” He yelled back exasperatedly, pushing up his glasses on his nose with a huff.

“Come on dude! Frankie sounds so much more chill than _Francis Barbetti_. Much too stuffy. Makes you sound like a fifty-year-old man who retired early and golfs regularly,” Xavier said flippantly, waving his hand about and shaking his head.

“I told you at Nationals last year and I will tell you again. Its FRANCIS. Not FRANKIE. FRANCIS. End of discussion,” Francis said back tiredly, running his hands down his face in frustration.

“Whatever you say Frankie,” Xavier retorted with his tongue stuck out before he began to move about the ring, doing random turns and loops. He began to hum “My Humps” by Fergie as he spun about the rink aimlessly.

Francis turned, looking at Phoenix for the first time. He extended his hand out and gave him a cordial smile. “Nice to meet you. As Xavier so nicely mentioned before, I am Francis Barbetti. And you are?” He left his hand extended, waiting for Phoenix to reply.

“Phoenix Aisner. I watched your performances at Nationals last year. I was disappointed when they didn’t choose you for World’s. Your form is text-book,” Phoenix replied, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake.

Francis winced slightly before awkwardly thanking him and releasing his grip. He gave him a slight nod before he too began to skate about, stretching his arms as he went. Phoenix stood off to the side, watching the other two skaters silently for a few minutes before he went to the far edge of the rink. He leaned against the wall before he began to stretch out his legs, bringing them up, one at a time, behind his head and holding them there.

The three young men went about doing their own thing for a few minutes before Xavier skated up to Phoenix, water bottle in hand.

“So, what’s the scoop on our coach? All I know is that we are gonna be taught by the head coach of this place. My parents were a bit upset when they found out Victor Nikiforov wasn’t going to be training us. But I mean, it’s not every day you get asked to be the choreographer for the US Olympic Figure Skating Team,” Xavier said off-handedly, waving his drink about between sips.

Phoenix shrugged before running his hands through his hair. “I don’t even know his name. Pretty much I got the call from Victor saying I had been chosen to be taught at his skating rink along with two other skaters and was on the next plane out of Detroit courtesy of the man himself.”

Xavier gave him a weird look, turning his head to the side. “You didn’t even talk to your parents about it? It was like a big family discussion. It’s not every day you get chosen to be taught under the tutelage of skating legend Victor Nikiforov.”

“It wasn’t like I had anybody to discuss it with. My mom passed away when I was 13 and I aged out of the foster care system six months ago when I turned 18 so,” Phoenix replied with a deadpan look before beginning to unzip his vest and throwing it over the railing.

Xavier choked on his water, spitting some out in the process and looking at Phoenix with an incredulous look. He wiped at his mouth roughly with the back of his arm before putting up both hands defensively. “Dude…I had no idea. I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly, looking apologetic.

Phoenix waved him off, patting him on the shoulder lightly. “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t know.”

Suddenly, the doors to the rink were pushed open as someone sauntered in. From the other side of the rink, Xavier and Phoenix watched as a man in his mid-forties made his way to stands. With a grunt, the man took off his hood and pulled off his sweatshirt, revealing a slightly chunky man of Asian descent with scruffy facial hair and slightly long, black hair pulled back into a messy bun.

Slowly the two skaters, who were soon joined by Francis, began to skate their way towards the man, who they saw was methodically putting on a pair of skates. The man stopped to yawn a few times, pushing back his bangs which hung in his face, before finishing lacing his skates and standing up. He looked down at his wrist, which held a watch and sighed. The man picked up his coffee he had brought in from where he had placed it on the seat and took a large swig from it before placing it back down and making his way to door to enter the rink.

The three teenage skaters sat and watched as the man slowly made his way over to them before coming to stop in front of them. He cleared his throat once before finally looking up at them with baggy eyes.

“Good morning. I am your Coach. You may call me Yuuri. Would you mind telling me your names?” He said tiredly.

“Good morning Coach Yuuri! My name is Xavier Fisk but most people call me Fish so feel free to call me that! I am excited to meet you and finally get to work with someone chosen by Victor Nikiforov himself to be the head coach of his rink!” Xavier blurted out, skating forward and taking Yuuri’s hands into his own before shaking them excitedly. Yuuri gave him a blank look before shaking back halfheartedly and releasing his hold.

“Good to meet you…Fish…And you two are?” He said, seemingly unaffected by Fish’s loudness so early in the morning.

Francis coughed once before raising his hand stiffly, “I am Francis Barbetti. It is nice to meet you Coach Yuuri.”

“But everybody calls him Frankie so you should too!” Fish spoke up, smiling brightly as he lightly punched Francis in the side.

Francis glared at him before yelling back, “You are the only one who calls me that!” Yuuri watched on in confusion as the two began to wrestle, grumbling back and forth about who was the bigger idiot before turning to look at Phoenix.

“And you are…?” Yuuri said, looking at him with slight interest.

“Phoenix Aisner, but just Nix is fine,” he said calmly, taking a quick glance to his left to see Frankie and Fish were still arguing. Yuuri nodded, muttered a quiet nice to meet you before turning away and beginning to skate.

The two arguing boys stopped and all three stood and watched as the man did a few lazy loops about, stretching his arms and doing a few simple movements. He did this for a few minutes in silence before sighing and skating back up to them. He no longer looked completely asleep and instead had a harder, rougher set to his jaw. He cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest before speaking much louder and more serious than he had previously.

“Your schedule will work as follows: Five days a week from 7 to 11 we will have group practice. I expect you to be already warmed up and ready to go by the time the clock strikes 7,” he pauses momentarily to point at the clock on the wall before continuing. “You will have a one-hour break before you will be expected to return to your shared apartment next door where you will be home schooled by a tutor until 5.”

“But aren’t we all in different grades? Will we all be learning the same material?” Fish questioned.

“Actually you are all in the 11th grade.  Fish you skipped a grade when you were younger, as you already know, and Nix was held back for…attendance issues,” Yuuri said, the end of his statement dropping off. Fish and Frankie both turned to look at Nix, who was pointedly staring at his feet. Yuuri cleared his throat loudly, gaining back their attention.

“Two days a week from 6-9 you will have one-on-one lessons with me. Two other days of the week you will have personal ballet lessons from the on-site ballet teacher from 6 to 7:30. While you will mostly have the weekends off, one of your group’s six personal skate sessions will be on a weekend night and you will all be required to go for a one-hour job one of the two weekend days. Otherwise, you are free to explore the surrounding area,” Yuuri pauses here, his voice dropping as he gives them a stern look, “so long as you have your phones and go in at least groups of two. I will not tolerate my skaters showing up late to any session or getting lost. Now, if there are no questions, I would like to begin.”

Nix, Fish and Frankie turned to look at each other, sharing worried and slightly horrified looks before nodding and letting out a joint,” Yes coach!” and dispersing about the rink.

* * *

 “Dude, I think Coach Yuuri is that teacher from The Karate Kid,” Fish moaned as he threw himself back onto his bed. The three teenagers had been told they would be staying in the apartment next door to the rink, and that the first door to the right on the second floor would be their shared room. It was oddly large for such a seemingly modest sized apartment, with a bed and drawer set for each boy as well as a shared closet.

“The what from what?” Nix groaned back, giving up his attempt to make it fully to his bed and instead crashing on the rug instead.

Fish shot Nix a horrified look as he turned onto his stomach, tucking his hair behind his ear. He typed away rapidly on his phone, looking like he was on a mission, before tossing it at Nix who was still laying on the ground. Nix let out a groan when the phone hit him in the shoulder and slowly moved to pick it up.

“The Karate Kid? Never seen it. Isn’t that movie, like, really old?” Nix asked, turning to look back at Fish with minimal effort. Frankie, who had been getting changed robotically by his bed, walked over to Nix and leaned down to stare at the phone as well.

“I haven’t seen it either. If I remember correctly, there are a few versions of this movie. Are you referring to the original or the remake?” Frankie asked, pushing his glasses back up onto his nose and leaning closer to peer at the phone in Nix’s hand.

“Personally I prefer the remake. Jaden Smith is like, my idol. I wish to one day obtain his level of what-the-fuckery but for the sake of you uncultured swine, I would suggest the original,” Fish said off-handedly, reaching down beside his bed to pull out his laptop from his suitcase. He began to type away at it before grunting in frustration. “Ugh! I can’t figure out the stupid Wi-Fi password. How am I supposed to live without my access to shitty memes!” Fish moaned, flailing back and forth on his bed and whining loudly.

Nix grunted before pushing himself off the rug and making his way over to Fish’s bed. “Here,” Nix said, reaching for Fish’s laptop and beginning to type. It took him only a few moments before he handed it back. “There you go. For some reason, the password is ‘Phichit was here’. Not exactly sure why or who that is, but I saw it written down on a sticky note in the kitchen downstairs.”

Fish shrugged and muttered a thanks before going back to typing away on his laptop. After a few minutes, he let out a low “found ya bastard” before popping up from his bed and making his way over to where Nix had laid down on his.

“Alright, time for you losers to get cultured. Frankie, get your ass over here. Movie night, starting right now!” Fish said, proceeding to make himself comfy almost immediately against the wall of Nix’s bed.

“You are really weird. You know that right? Most people don’t just throw themselves on someone else’s bed and demand they watch a movie with them the first day they meet them,” Nix retorted, shooting Fish a judging look.

“Most people didn’t move across the country away from their family to live in a room with two other strangers and be taught at Victor Nikiforov’s rink,” Fish retorted haughtily, pulling a package of Oreos from his sweatpants pocket. He shot Nix a side-eyed look before lifting the package up and offering it to him.

“Touché Mr.Fish. Touché,” Nix replied before reaching down to grab an Oreo from the package. “Hey, Frankie, get over here. What is it you family people call it? Forced family fun?” Nix called out to Frankie, who was sitting on the edge of his bed and arranging his sock drawer (no, really, by length and everything).

Frankie shot them a tired look before begrudgingly making his way over and standing at the edge of Nix’s bed. He looked at the limited amount of space, seeing as two teenage boys were already occupying the twin bed, and sighed before slipping in at the end and settling down. Fish let out a triumphant cry before throwing his arms around the two other boys shoulders and pulling them together.

“Forced family fun time is a go!”

* * *

 

The next morning, Fish, Frankie and Nix scrambled out of the same bed after having fallen asleep near the end of the movie. None of them had set an alarm and together in a group panic they managed to get dressed and each grab a random power bar and water from the kitchen before running next door to the rink. By the time they got their skates on and began to warm up, it was already 6:57, leaving them with only three minutes before Coach Yuuri would show up and expect them to already be ready to start.

At exactly 7:00, Yuuri came into the rink, coffee in hand and looking only slightly less tired than the day before. At least today he didn’t look to be completely dead and he soon made his way onto the ice. The three boys scrambled over, moving to stand in a line before him and looking oddly guilty. Yuuri shot them all a suspicious look before immediately moving on to the training for the day.

It took only two minutes before Yuuri realized none of them had properly warmed up and sighed before calling for them all to stop. “Okay, what did I say yesterday about being warmed up and ready by 7 when I got here? And why do you all look so tired?”

The three teenagers remained stone-faced proceeding to look everywhere but at Yuuri. He glared at them, rubbing at his face tiredly before sighing loudly. “I will give you all one free pass seeing as yesterday was your first night away from home. But I expect you to be ready from every day now on,” Yuuri said sternly, giving them a steely look.

Frankie nodded frantically before replying, “Yes Coach Yuuri, won’t happen again!”

Yuuri shot them all a curt nod before motioning to the rink with his chin as a sign to finish warming up. The three boys relaxed from their previous tense state and began to skate around. Fish began to do long, fast loops about the rink, and every time he passed either Frankie or Nix, he would whisper, “Wax on, wax off.”

By his fourth circuit around, Nix and Fish were struggling to keep in their chuckles. Eventually, even Frankie began to chuckle, after Fish had annoyingly pestered him numerous times in a row with the stupid line, which didn’t go unnoticed by Coach Yuuri.  The entire time, Yuuri had been moving about himself, observing the boys and making small comments on better ways to stretch out and had noticed the weird way they were acting.

Eventually, Yuuri managed to catch was Fish said when he repeated it a little too loud on one of his passes by Frankie and Yuuri let out a small chuckle of his own. All three boys stopped, slightly horrified, turning to look at Yuuri who had stopped and was rubbing at his temples gently.

“You boys know I’m Japanese right?” Yuuri said after chuckling again, shaking his head and smiling slightly. “I didn’t even think kids your age would know what that movie is anyway.” He half-whispered afterwards, looking almost fond. He nodded one last time to himself before his face went back to neutral and he looked at the group of now embarrassed boys.

“Alright, enough messing around. You should all be ready by now. Today I’m gonna evaluate you all on your current jumping abilities and how well you can perform each of the jumps you have learnt. Only then will I be able to train you to improve your current jumps and teach you new ones.” He stopped here, releasing his hands from where he had crossed them against his chest and placed them on his hips.

“Alright, who here can do a quad and if so, which ones?” Yuuri says, waiting for a response.

The three boys look awkwardly at each other and are silent before Fish awkwardly raises his hand. “By able to do a quad do you mean landing one in competition or having managed to at least do it once in practice? Because I mean, that’s a big difference.”

Yuuri’s eyebrow raised at this, not having thought he would need to distinguish. Being able to do a quad at their age was not required by any means nor expected, but was something which would greatly increase their overall scores. He hoped to be able to have each of them go into the season with at least one quad under their belt to use in conjunction with crisper, cleaner triples.

“Let me rephrase this: have any of you managed to land, in practice or competition, any quad jumps?”

Slowly, all three boys raised their hands. Yuuri looked pleasantly surprised for a moment before pointing to Frankie.

“I’ve managed to land a Quad Salchow a few times in practice but never in competition. I somehow always manage to not have enough speed and don’t get enough rotations,” Frankie said quietly, fidgeting with his glasses as he spoke.

Yuuri nodded his head before replying, “That’s something we can definitely work on. Chris had a habit of not getting enough rotations in competition too if he wasn’t focused enough.”

“Chris?” Frankie asked confused. Yuuri looked surprised for a moment before replying.

“Oh! I was talking about Christophe Giacometti, the skater from Switzerland. He could be brilliant when motivated enough but when he wasn’t, sometimes in competition he would mess up a planned quad and end up doing a triple and even sometimes a double,” Yuuri explained, moving his hands about animatedly. The three shot him an odd look, having yet to see Yuuri look so passionate about something before Yuuri moved on and pointed to Fish.

“And you?”

Fish rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly before answering, “Well I landed a Quad Toe Loop at the Eastern Great Lakes Competition but messed up my landing at the Midwestern Sectionals. I was working on doing a Quad Toe Loop, against my coaches wishes because I had just gotten over a sprained ankle, at Nationals last year when I fell and broke two of my toes and re-sprained my ankle.” He finished in a mumble, looking down at his skates and refusing to look up.

Yuuri shot him a glare before grunting out, “Well that was a bad idea. You could have seriously hurt yourself. And I mean, out of this year’s season too. In the future, if a coach tells you not to try something? Its most likely for your own good.” Yuuri gave him a stern look, waiting for Fish to meet his eyes.

Fish finally looked up and pouted. “But my last coach was so mean! I wasn’t even supposed to do the Quad in the first place! He never let me try, kept telling me I was too young or something.”

“Fish, he wasn’t trying to be mean. He was looking out for you and your body. You are still growing. A serious injury now could lead to lifelong consequences,” he groaned into his hands before continuing. “I will make a deal with you. I am willing to teach you how to properly land a Quad Toe Loop on one condition…Don’t ever question what I say. Do we have a deal?” Fish looked over Coach Yuuri for a moment before looking dejected and nodding miserably. Yuuri murmured a quiet good under his breathe before motioning for Nix to go last.

“I can land a Quad Salchow and a Quad Toe Loop most of the time in practice. I landed a Quad Salchow at the same regional competition as Fish but I fell on two other jumps and completely messed up my routine,” Nix rubbed at his arm aimlessly as he spoke, pausing to think for a moment before continuing, quieter, “I’ve landed a Quad Flip. Twice. But it was during practice and it was just me messing around. My form was abysmal.”

Yuuri stared at Nix with wide eyes before squinting at him with an annoyed expression. “You can’t land a Quad Flip with bad form. You would fall on your ass and wipe out. You would have had to at least have done it half-decently to even land it. I’m impressed. Not many skaters can do a Quad Flip, even some of the greats were never able to.”

Nix put up his hands, waving them frantically before replying, “No no no! I’m not trying to boast or anything! Really, trust me, they were horrible. I was just telling you everything I’ve tried in the past so you can coach me best.” He looked panicked as he finished, eyes wide and afraid. Yuuri shot him a calculating and searing look before turning and beginning to skate.

“Alright, time to show me what you can do. Start with doubles and move up through triples. I want to see you at least try every type of jump. I’ll evaluate each one and afterwards tell each of you which jumps you need to focus on. Once that’s done, I want you to attempt the quads you mentioned and whatever other ones you think you might be able to do. I would rather you switch to a triple than fall, so stay alert. Okay, be cautious of each other, go,” Yuuri finished with a dismissive way, moving to lean against the wall of the rink and watch the skaters.

Fish moaned and skated up to Nix, patting him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Screw the wax on, wax off shit. I’ve changed my mind. He was raised by monks in the mountains of japan and beaten with sticks. Only explanation dude.”

Nix shot him a half-exasperated, half-understanding look before going to move across the ice himself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Now with edits because i'm a dumb dumb and had typos up the wazoo from typing like a mad man!~~
> 
> Surprise! I was feeling so motivated by the positive feedback I got that I went ahead and banged the next chapter out. We are just about halfway through what I have planned on, so thanks for reading and I hope you stick around! 
> 
> If I had to title this chapter, I would probably call it "Calls, Coaches and Cafes" so there's a hint at what's to come!

A few days later during group practice, Yuuri's phone, which had a ringtone in another language, began to go off. The trio shot their coach an odd look and he waved them off dismissively, telling them to continue. Naturally, the trio pretended to be working on their step sequences but instead, were slowly making their way over to Yuuri in order to hear who he was talking to. 

"Vitya! Baka! Baka baka baka!Dōshite son'nani baka? Hah?!" Coach Yuuri yelled into the phone, waving his other arm about and his face beginning to turn red. He was clearly agitated, annoyed at whoever he was on the phone with and began to skate in small, angry circles. He nodded at the phone a few times, the voice on the other line too quiet to decipher before sighing loudly.

"Ladno, Ladno. Ya proshchayu tebya," Yuuri said quietly, sounding resigned but smiling slightly. 

He paused, allowing the other to speak before his smile widened and became fonder. "I love you too Vitya," he murmured, fiddling with the ring on his finger. The trio shot each other wide-eyed looks before dispersing quickly, as they knew Coach Yuuri wouldn't like it if he knew they had been listening in on his private phone call. 

Nix was preparing to go into a spin when Fish came up to him, hand held up to his face suspiciously. He looked both ways, seeing Yuuri was saying something to Frankie, before he leaned up to whisper in Nix's ear. "Was that just me, or was Coach Yuuri speaking in another language?"

Nix thought back, moving to place his hands on his hips lazily. "Totally. I have no idea what language though. It sounded really weird."

Fish gave another quick look behind them, seeing Yuuri was still preoccupied and leant back up to whisper again, "I think he was talking to his wife. He told them he loved them and I think I heard a name too. Vitya, it sounds like a girl's name."

Nix's raised one eyebrow high and turned his head to the side, "I don't know. I've never met anyone called Vitya. And how do you know its his wife? Maybe it was his girlfriend or his sister or something."

Fish pushed at him lightly and gave him a disapproving look, "No dude, trust me. You don't smile like that at your sister. And he has a wedding ring Nix! Didn't you see it?"

Nix turned away to look at Yuuri and confirm this fact and froze upon seeing he was now beginning to make his way over to them with a curious look on his face. Both boys panicked as their approaching coach who they had begun to jokingly call "The Demon Coach" and skated away and went back to work. Yuuri slid to a stop, wondering why they had looked so frantic before they skated away and shook his head before turning to lean against the side of the rink.

* * *

"You know Nix, you always seem to do better when you think I'm not looking. Why is that?" Yuuri asked Nix during one of their first few one-on-one sessions. Nix stopped his movements, chest heaving slightly, and put his hand on the railing of the rink to catch his breathe.

He looked down at his skates, refusing to look Yuuri in the eye before murmuring,"I just get really nervous."

Yuuri made a grunt in acknowledgement he had heard him before skating away slightly to grab both of their waters from where they sat on the railing. He came back moments later, arm outstretched and offering Nix his water bottle. Nix muttered a quiet thanks before standing back up from his bent over position and throwing his head back to drink.

"You know, you remind me a lot of myself," Yuuri said suddenly, voice less harsh and more open than Nix was used to hearing it. Nix turned to look at Yuuri, looking him in the eyes for the first time in a few minutes.

"Really?" Nix's voice broke as he spoke. 

Yuuri nodded slowly, turning to lean against the rink's edge and look out at the ice. "I used to be an absolute mess when it came to competitions. I was so focused on what I thought everyone expected of me that I never stopped to think what I should be. There were so many times I fell during a jump or missed a step just because I  got myself so nervous and worked up."

Nix's eyes widened comically as he looked at his coach in awe. "You used to skate in competitions? You got nervous too?"

Yuuri turned to look at Nix, smiling fondly before nodding decisively. "Mhm. And if it weren't for a special someone coming into my life to show me how much potential I had, I would have never gotten past my anxieties." He looked up at the ceiling, allowing a soft, small smile to grace his lips before patting Nix's shoulder gently and skating off.

"Come on. We have work to do if you are ever going to land those Quads in competition cleanly."

* * *

“Guys, Coach Yuuri used to skate in competitions!” Nix said loudly as he entered their shared room that night. Frankie and Fish, who had been sitting in the middle of the room playing Uno, whipped their heads around to look at him in the doorway.

“No way, seriously?!” Fish hollered back loudly, dropping his cards and knocking over his drink in the process. Frankie let out an indignant yell as he scrambled to move the cards out of the way and pick up the dropped drink. He got up and grabbed a few papers towels from on top of his drawer(Fish had a habit of making messes) and began to wipe it up.

“I mean, it's not really that surprising. We’ve all seen how good his choreography he has had us practice so far is. He would have had to at least done some competitions to know those sort of things,” Frankie said stiffly, glaring at Fish as he continued to wipe up the wet spot on the rug. Fish shot him an apologetic look before turning back to look at Nix.

“I wonder how far he went. We haven’t really seen him do too many jumps or spins. And he always gives us fishy answers when we ask why,” Fish said, playing with the ends of his hair idly. Nix made his way into the room, dropping down onto the edge of his bed with a grunt.

“Do you think he ever did stuff like us? Like regionals and Nationals?” Nix asked them earnestly, moving to cross his legs on top of his blankets.

The two other skaters looked to each other, giving each other thoughtful looks before turning back to Nix. “I have no idea,” Frankie admitted, pushing at his glasses absentmindedly.

The three looked down dejected, all knowing asking their Coach about it would be pointless. The man was like Fort Knox when it came to his personal life and any questions of the sort were shot down with, “If you have time to worry about stupid stuff like that, then you aren’t focusing hard enough on your movements.”

The three teenage boys sat in relative silence, except for an occasional grunt of frustration before suddenly Fish sat up, throwing his arms up in alarm. “Guys!” He yelled in the process, causing Frankie to sit back quickly to avoid being in range of Fish’s limbs. 

“Why don’t we ask that other coach? You know the one who always talks about his glory days? Maybe he skated against Coach!” Fish said excitedly. The three boys look at each other for a moments before all three smiled, excited to maybe finally learn something about their coach besides that he was most likely beaten by monks as a child. Most likely.

* * *

The next morning after their group training session, the trio decided to hang around, telling Yuuri they were going to practice a few more minutes before heading off to the changing rooms. Yuuri shot them a skeptical look, as they had never before stayed past their allotted time, but gave them a simple wave off before he left the ice. He undid his shoes with practiced movements. Just as he was about to leave, he stopped, looking back over his shoulder to shoot Fish a heated look.

“Don’t forget to stop by my office tonight after your ballet lesson,” he stated clearly with an edge before turning to leave the rink. Nix shot Fish an apologetic look as he patted him on the back lightly.

“Hopefully he won’t yell at you too much. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that look he gave you,” Nix said, shaking his head as he crossed his arms. Fish pouted, leaning on the edge of the rink with an overly dramatic sigh.

“I don’t know what his problem is. It wasn’t like I was gonna fall or anything. I caught myself at the end,” he huffed, beginning to untie his hair from where he had tied it on top of his head and letting it down to its full length partially down his back.

Frankie made his way over, water bottle in hand, before placing it on the ledge and taking off his glasses. They had fogged during his skating and he began to clean them methodically with the edge of his shirt as he spoke. “You did make a deal with him Xavier. I would be mad too. He told you not to try a Quad Flip and you did anyway.”

Fish moaned, running his hands through his hair and untangling the knots with his fingers. “Like I said it wasn’t like I fell. One of my other skater friends sent me a video of an old routine of Victor’s and he landed it like it was nothing! He looked so cool doing it too! I wanted to try it myself,” Fish huffed as he finished, beginning to braid his hair slowly.

“And that attitude is exactly why you are going to get a talking to later. You can’t just break a promise because you feel like it,” Frankie muttered, putting his glasses back on and readjusting the edge of his shirt.

Fish flipped him off and stuck his tongue out at him, about to retaliate when the door to the changing room opened. All three boys turned their heads to see the person they had been waiting for enter. They shot each other excited looks, forgetting their previous discussion, as they made their way over to the man.

“Hey! Coach Ben! Come here!” Fish called out. The man who had just finished putting on his skates turned to look at the boys, a smile gracing his face. He made his way onto the ice, closing the door behind him as he skated over with a twirl.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Xavier Fisk. What’s up small fry?” He shouted loudly, resting one of his hands on his hip. 

“You know how you are always talking about your glory days?” Fish started but was promptly cut off.

“Excuse me? Why are you talking in the past tense? I am still in my glory days, thank you very much. Can’t stop this good ole’ train of fabulousness, no no no!” He retorted, snapping his fingers repeatedly. 

Nix chuckled before skating up beside the coach and putting his arm around his shoulder. “Whatever you say old man. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Coach Ben looked slightly sheepish here but remained silent, “I wanted to ask you something! Did you ever skate against Coach Yuuri?” 

Coach Ben’s face contorted oddly, pinching and squished in before he replied, “Oh honey, gods no!”

The trio shot each other a confused look just as a larger group of children entered the rink, filling the once quiet space with their loud, echoing screeches. Coach Ben waved the trio off, telling them to skedaddle so he could, “lay some sweet knowledge on these precious little souls,” before leaving with a spin and a wave. 

The three boys made their way off the ice, pulling off their skates in a hurry as they made their way into the changing room away from the next group of skaters. Standing in a row at their adjacent lockers, they began to change.

“I don't understand. Coach Ben went to Nationals when he was in his prime. But he said he had never skated against Yuuri. Does that mean Yuuri wasn’t on that level?” Fish said, rubbing at his chin in thought before backing up to the bench and sitting down with a plop.

Nix pulled his long sleeve shirt over his head, throwing it into his bag in his locker before turning to face Fish. “I’m not sure. I could have sworn Coach Ben said he was the same age as Coach Yuuri.”

Frankie hummed, closing locker as he already finished changing and threw his bag over his shoulder. “Maybe Yuuri never got to that level? I’m not sure. He seems like he knows a lot.”

“Coach Yuuri just keeps getting more confusing,” Fish whined from his spot where he was lying on the bench, taking selfies on his phone. 

The three let out a group sigh before finishing getting dressed and heading next door for lunch.

* * *

Later that night, after his ballet class, Fish made his way to Coach Yuuri’s office, dragging his feet along the way. He knocked twice before he heard a “Come in” and pushed the door open slowly.

“Go ahead and take a seat,” Yuuri said, glasses on the edge of his nose as he flipped through a stack of papers on his desk. He made a few notes in the margin of the paper in his hand before placing it down and pulling his glasses off. He grunted, pushing the pieces of his hair that had fallen into his face back and looked at Fish with a serious gaze.

“I want to talk about what you did today, but seeing as it's been a long day and I am tired, how about you tell me,” Yuuri deadpanned, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. 

Fish gulped quietly before squirming in his chair in an attempt to sit up straighter and look less timid than he felt. “Well, you told me not to do a Quad Flip...and I tried to anyway.” 

Yuuri nodded at this before sighing, “And do you mind explaining to me why?”

Fish gave a quick, curt nod before bringing his hands into his lap and fiddling with his fingers nervously. “Well, I recently saw this video of Victor from when he was younger,” Yuuri hummed at this, motioning for him to continue with his hand, “And in it, he did this really crisp, clean Quad Flip. It looked,” at this Fish began to get animated, throwing his hands about, “SO COOL! Like, he did it and made it look so easy. And I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I wanted to be even a tenth as cool as him.”

Fish finished, hands raised and his face dropped when he realized how excited he had gotten. Yuuri stared at him for a few moments, face unreadable before letting out a huff of air and leaning back in his chair. He chuckled to himself, low and annoyed before sitting back up and placing his hands on his desk, leaning forward and towards Fish.

“I want you to listen to me, and I want you to listen well. This teacher-student relationship will only work if there is mutual trust. I need to be able to trust you will follow my instructions and in turn, you need to be able to trust that I will teach you to the best of my ability,” he paused, his voice dropping lower.

“I don’t know what I would do if you tried something you weren’t ready for and got hurt,” he murmured, eyes steely and set harsh. Fish swallowed, frozen in place by the sincere yet brutal look on his face. “Please, don’t do something stupid like that ever again,” he stated, voice harsh but laced with emotion. Fish nodded robotically, eyes wide and unblinking. 

Yuuri nodded in return before settling back into his chair. He began to rub at his eyes, moaning lowly and cursing under his breath. Fish, after a few frozen moments, looked down to the desk and noticed for the first time a notebook open on it. In it, was a bunch of odd characters which he didn’t recognize but soon realized must have been some other language. Fish cleared his throat awkwardly, getting Yuuri’s attention.

“Coach Yuuri, what language is that in?” he asked quietly, motioning to the notebook with his chin. Yuuri looked down at what he pointing to before looking up, an odd look on his face. 

“...Its Japanese?” He said questioningly, raising an eyebrow. “I was born in Japan. I thought I told you boys that,” he said awkwardly, moving his hand to rub at his wrist gently. 

“I knew you were Japanese. I just didn’t know you were born there!” Fish replied, his normal energy beginning to come back. 

Yuuri nodded, moving to stand up from his desk and closing the notebook in the process. “I grew up in Japan before moving to America and going to college,” he explained, grabbing his sweatshirt from the back of the chair. Fish followed him, moving to leave the office as well. Yuuri locked it swiftly before turning to Fish and giving him a small smile.

“See you tomorrow morning Fish,” he said quietly, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze before moving past him and leaving Fish to stand frozen outside his office.

* * *

“GUYS! I’M BACK AND HE DIDN’T KILL ME!” Fish shouted as he entered the apartment, kicking his shoes off and making his way to the stairs. Frankie stuff his head out the door, shooting him an overly dramatic annoyed look.

“Damn, I lost the bet,” he said in a monotone voice, earning him a middle finger from Fish as he pushed him out of the doorway of their room. He pranced across the rug towards Nix’s bed where he was lying and flopped back onto Nix who was lying there. Nix let out a loud “Oof!” before grumbling at Fish and telling him to get his bony elbow off out of his back. 

Frankie sighed from the doorway before moving towards Nix’s bed and sitting on the edge of it. 

“Since when did my bed become open to the public?” Nix groaned as Fish moved on top of him, moving so his feet were against the wall and the rest of him hung off the edge of the bed upside down. 

Fish moved to pull a bag of peanut butter crackers from his pocket, snapping it in half and offering half to Frankie before retorting, “Well, my bed has my pillow fort on it currently and Frankie throws a hissy fit every time I get crumbs on it so logically, that leaves your bed.”

“And who says I won’t throw a hissy about you getting crumbs on MY bed?” Nix intoned, moving his arms to rest his head on them.

“Get real. We both know Frankie is the biggest diva of us all when it comes to being clean,” Fish replied, scrolling through his social media lazily. 

“Hey!” Frankie yelled, frowning at Fish. Nix chuckled, poking him lightly in the leg.

“I mean, it's kinda true,” Nix said chuckling, giving up and allowing Fish to squirm to get comfortable. Frankie shot them both a wounded look before reaching for his drink and sipping at it sourly.

“WAIT! I JUST REMEMBERED!” Fish suddenly yelled, sitting up from his position and crossing his legs so he was in the center of Nix’s back. Nix grunted at the sudden change, groaning at being kicked in the process.

“First off? Coach Yuuri like patted me on the shoulder. And it wasn’t in a mean way either! He told me would ‘see me in the morning’ and I swear I saw the beginnings of a smile!” Fish hollered, waving his arms above his head. Frankie shot him a disbelieving look, moving to stretch his legs out across his end of the bed.

“Sounds like a hallucination to me,” he huffed, stretching forward to touch his toes. 

“I know, I know. Sounds fake right? But get this! He also told me he was also born in Japan! He knows how to write in it too! I saw it in a notebook on his desk!” He said leaning forward, hand brought up to his face as if he was revealing the secret of life itself. Nix turned his head at this, only barely able to see him over his shoulder. 

“You know, that makes a lot more sense. That would explain why Coach Ben had never skated against him,” Nix replied, bringing up his hand to rest his hand on it. 

“I agree,” Frankie said nodding. “That’s probably what language he was talking in on the phone that one time too.”

Fish nodded proudly, crossing his arms across his chest smugly and rocking back. “See? I did good for once. I totally could be like, a detective or something,” Fish smugly stated, closing his eyes and tipping his chin up.

Both Nix and Frankie chuckled before saying at the same time, “Yeah, no.”

* * *

A week later, the trio of boys were at a local cafe on one of their days off when they ran into Coach Yuuri. He looked different than he did at the rink. It was like he was  _ lighter _ , walking with his shoulders up and his face bright opposed to the normal steely gaze he normally held on the ice. He noticed them almost immediately in line, waving to them with a smile before walking up to them.

“Hey boys, enjoying your day off?” He asked in a voice much sweeter than normal. The three boys shot each other confused looks. Nix recovered the quickest and replied.

“Yeah, we all went for our hour jog this morning together and Frankie has his ballet class later. That way we can have tomorrow off completely. We plan on going to the movies to see that new Vampire movie that just came out,” he explained, putting his hands into his pockets.

“Vampire movie? Are those back in style again?” He replied, turning his head slightly to the side. Nix nodded, still reeling from the sight of a much more docile and much less stern coach.

“Hmm, it's so odd. All the old trends keep getting recycled. I wonder if the space themed movies will ever come back into style. I used to love those,” Yuuri supplied, turning his gaze from the boys to the menu which hung above the register. The person in front of the boys got their order and together they stepped forward. Yuuri cleared his voice, stepping to the front. 

“Hello there. Put whatever these boys order on my card,” he said smiling. The man behind the counter, who wore a name badge which said nothing but “Black” smiled in return.

“Sure. The usual?” He asked, pointing his thumb behind him to the coffee machine. Yuuri nodded, handing him his card and stepping to the side.

“Coach, you don’t need to do that,” Frankie argued, putting his hands up. Yuuri waved him off with a smile.

“Don’t worry about it. My treat. You all have been working really hard lately,” he replied, stuttering slightly and rubbing at his neck awkwardly. 

The three boys let out a joint thank you before moving forward to order their drinks and food. Yuuri retrieved his card and was handed his coffee before he motioned to a table in the corner. The three boys with their orders in hand followed him, sitting down at the table with little complaint.

Yuuri began to sip at his coffee idly when he suddenly got a text. He pulled his phone out, looking at the message on his lock screen, before smirking and putting his phone back in his pocket. He lifted his head up to look at the boys, who since having ordered their food, had remained silent.

“So, what else do you three do on your days off?” Yuuri asked casually, picking back up his coffee.

Fish nearly choked on his sandwich, having forgotten his coach was sitting there for a moment before coughing once and putting his food down. “Well, we go to the movies a lot or watch them together in our room. These two rarely ever watched them before they got here but I fixed that real quick. Can’t leave them completely uncultured,” he explained, smirking slightly when Frankie shot him an annoyed look. 

Yuuri chuckled lightly before taking another sip from his drink, “I never really watched a lot of movies until my roommate in college got me into space ones. At the time, there were quite a few good ones in English that I had never heard of before when I lived in Japan, and after awhile, it became our thing to see all the ones we could find, good or bad.”

The three boys sat forward in interest, excited to learn anything they could about their coach. This entire experience was surreal for them, as their coach was acting like a completely different person away from the rink and they hoped to learn all they could.

“Are you still friends with them?” Frankie asked, fiddling with his glasses absentmindedly.

Yuuri nodded, smiling as he placed his coffee on the table. “Actually, he’s my best friend. His name is Phichit Chulanont. He is an ice skater like you guys,” he explained quietly, red dusting his cheeks. Fish threw his hands up in excitement.

“Really?! That’s so cool that you got to be roommates! Did he skate professionally?” Fish practically yelled, sitting forward on the edge of his seat.

Yuuri rubbed at his neck awkwardly, leaning away from Fish slightly. “You guys really don’t know much about the old skaters do you?”

The trio nodded almost simultaneously, causing Yuuri to chuckle slightly as he reached into his pocket. “Here, I think I have a video of one of his old routines saved on here somewhere,” he mumbled, beginning to scroll through the hundreds of pictures and videos on his phone. Eventually he hummed, turning his phone to the boys and holding it for them to see. 

The three boys leaned forward over the table, peering at the screen as they watched a man of Thai descent perform a high-level performance with numerous difficult jumps. Fish let out a few ooo’s and aaa’s at some of the combinations and step sequences, enjoying the upbeat and ethnic music the man was skating to. The video was shaking, meaning it had probably been shot by an amatuer, but was at least good enough to see most of the important parts. Eventually it ended and Yuuri took his phone back, closing the apps and putting it back in his pocket.

“He actually was the first man from Thailand to win any medal in the Olympics, not to mention Silver,” Yuuri said proudly, smiling. The trio looked on in silence before Fish clapped his hands excitedly.

“THAT. IS. SO. COOL! And you are best friends with him! You are so lucky!” Fish hollered, standing up in his seat and slapping the table. He earned a few angry looks from some of the other cafe people and awkwardly coughed before sitting down and curling in on himself embarrassed. Nix and Frankie snickered, trying to hold in their laughs as Yuuri sent an apologetic look to the particularly annoyed elderly couple next to them. 

“You’ll probably meet him soon enough. He tends to stay with us for a few weeks near the beginning of the season to help out with training,” Yuuri revealed, picking back up his drink and taking a few sips. Fish began to open and close his mouth repeatedly before Nix shut it with his hand and leaned across the table towards Yuuri with interest.

“Do you have any stories about him? What is he like?” Nix questioned. Yuuri leaned back, crossing his arms against his chest and thinking for a moment.

“Well, he is absolutely obsessed with social media. I’m pretty sure he has over a thousand selfies of himself on his phone at all times,” Yuuri started off, beginning to move his hands about. “And he is really good with technology. I am horrible with it. He’s actually the one who set up all the stuff in the apartment.”

Frankie nodded in understanding, “So that’s why the password to the Wi-Fi is ‘Phichit was here’. Makes sense.”

Yuuri looked sheepish before muttering, “Yeah. And I have no idea how to change it so I had to leave it.” The trio laughed at this and soon Yuuri joined in too. For a few minutes Yuuri told them about Phichit, from his numerous hamsters to the ice show that he had put together himself. 

“Hey, Coach Yuuri. Can you tell us about some of the other famous skaters? Do you know about them?” Fish asked suddenly, his food long done and drink nearly finished. Yuuri nodded, pulling out his phone and opening up Phichit’s social media. Animatedly, he began to point out some of the other skaters.

Yuri Plisetsky, a spit-fire of a skater who was the only man in history to have ever landed a Quad Axel in competition. Yuuri explained that he had an odd obsession with cats and opened up his social media to show just how many he had come to own over the years.

Then Yuuri moved on to Yuri’s best friend, Otabek Altin who lived with him. He was one of the only people Yuri was nice to and often was the featured in his selfies. Otabek was an avid motorcycle fan and often frequented auctions selling off classic models around the world. 

“And you remember Chris, who I mentioned before right?” All three nodded earnestly, waiting for whatever the next story Yuuri told would be. 

“Most people aren’t aware of this, but on top of ice skating, he is also a top-notch pole dancer. He can do all sorts of crazy lifts, just like some of the professionals,” Yuuri whispered, lowering his voice as he leaned across the table. The group of teenage boys broke off into a fit of giggles before Fish waved at his coach.

“You are joking, right Coach Yuuri? Nice try,” Nix said in between his laughs. Yuuri began to laugh too before shaking his head. “I’m being serious, here, he even put up some pictures of him doing it.”

The three leaned forward as Yuuri showed them on his phone, choking on their spit as they looked down. And just as Yuuri said, there was Chris, hanging from the bar in an upside-down position which looked anything but easy. Suddenly Yuuri’s phone lit up and the name “Vitya” followed by a set of three red hearts came up.

Yuuri jumped, pulling his phone back and excusing himself as he brought the cell phone to his ear. A loud and whiny voice could be heard through the phone and Yuuri apologized repeatedly before hanging up and standing up.

“Sorry boys. I’m late to pick someone up from the airport. Have a good rest of your weekend and see you on monday!” He rushed out before exiting the shop in a hurry. All three boys remained in their seats, silent for a few moments before slowly they turned to look at each other.

“Was that really Coach Yuuri?” Nix murmured quietly, his eyes glossy.

“If I didn’t know better, I would think he got taken over by a body snatcher,” Fish breathed out, frozen.

“For the last time Fish, body snatchers aren’t real,” Frankie retorted, finally moving to push his glasses back on his nose.

“That’s exactly what the government wants you to think,” Fish replied before slowly the three boys stood up, throwing their trash away before making their way back to the apartment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thanks for reading! I plan to have another chapter done by hopefully tomorrow night, or the next morning ~~~
> 
> ~~~Also Google Translate notes(sorry i suck at languages guys -_-):
> 
> "Baka! Baka baka baka! Dōshite son'nani baka?" --- (Japanese) Idiot! Idiot Idiot Idiot! Why are you so stupid?
> 
> "Ladno, Ladno. Ya proshchayu tebya." --- (Russian) Fine, fine. I forgive you. 
> 
> Cuz I totally HC that Victor and Yuuri have kinda just merged their languages together along with English to make this weird hybrid language that only they can seem to understand. <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So since I didn't manage to get this done by midnight and am putting this up at like 2 in the morning, I made it a bit longer than I originally planned. After this, there will be one chapter left, unless I split it up. I plan to have this done by Sunday night, if not Monday afternoon, so don't worry about having to wait long. 
> 
> And to answer many of yours questions about the obvious solution of googling: THEY ARE A BUNCH OF GOOBERS! They are so wrapped up in figuring out who their coach is, that they don't stop to see how simple of a solution there is. It happens to me all the time, where someone will say something to me and be like, isn't this easier? And I have to go...ya know...I didn't even think of that, but you are right haha 
> 
> Anyway, here is the next chapter! Hope you enjoy and continue to stick around!

Over the next few weeks, the boys began to notice a change in their coach. Slowly, the chunky man began to lose weight, his cheeks thinning out and his limbs gaining definition not seen before. At first, the three boys were happy for their coach, as they knew how difficult it was to keep a healthy weight as you got older. But as their coach continued to get smaller, their worries began to grow.

“Guys, is it just me, or is Coach Yuuri become 2D?” Fish yelled out one morning as they were warming up. Frankie looked up from where he was fixing his lace and nodded slightly.

“If by 2D, you mean skinny, then I’ve noticed it too,” Frankie replied, skating his way over to where Fish stood in the center of the ice. 

Nix nodded as he skated by, balancing on one leg and serpentining back and forth. “I was actually going to mention something the other day. Is it normal for someone to lose weight so drastically? You don’t think he’s sick, do you?” 

Fish looked pensive, before shaking his head back and forth. “I don’t think he’s sick. Wouldn’t he look,” Fish cut off here, looking frustrated before shaking his hands in front of him randomly, “ I don’t know? Paler? Or something?”

“I agree. It’s more like he is TRYING to lose the weight, though for what reason, I’m unsure,” Frankie replied, having moved from a standstill to do a few basic hand movements as he moved in an aimless circle.

“It still doesn’t look healthy to me. Someone his age shouldn’t be losing weight like that,” Nix shot back, folding his arms and frowning. Fish nodded, moving over to stand next to him and resting his head against his shoulder.

“Coach Yuuri is wasting away! Oh whatever should we do?!” Fish said dramatically, lifting his hand to his forehead and leaning further against Nix. Nix scoffed, shoving Fish off lightly before moving a bit away and doing a double salchow jump to warm-up.

“It's not like we could say something to him. You know he would either wave it off or give us the usual ‘don’t ask stupid questions just skate thing’ before going all demon coach,” Nix shouted out to the other two as he moved into a spin with his arms raised above his head. 

The two other skaters nodded, groaning slightly when suddenly, the doors of the rink opened to reveal their coach. Yuuri nodded to them all in acknowledgement before moving to the stands and putting on his skates quickly. Soon, he joined them on the ice and motioned for them to come over. 

“Seeing as it is now the beginning of July and you three have finished with tutoring for this year, we will be adding more practice time,” Yuuri starts before turning to look at Frankie.

“You will be part of two group session days after lunch; one with Fish and one with Nix. The same goes for you too as well,” Yuuri says, moving his gaze from the tallest boy to the other two momentarily before looking back at Frankie. “You will also be having an additional ballet class on one of the other days after lunch. I will also be sending you once a week to do a yoga class at a local gym.” 

Frankie nodded in understanding, albeit slightly skeptical, earning him a slight smile from Yuuri before he turned to face Fish. “As I said before, you will have two days with pair sessions. I would also like for you to spend once a week helping out Coach Ben with the kid’s class. Additionally, you will be required to watch the session between Frankie and Nix, for the entire time, without your phone,” he shot Fish a stern look at this, earning him a loud whine before Fish sighed and dejectedly nodded in acceptance. 

Yuuri frowned slightly at Fish before coming to face Nix. “Again, same as the last two. I would also like for you to join the class with the older girl’s once a week as well as help coach the beginners class once a week.” Nix shot him a confused look, but muttered a yes coach under his breathe irregardless. 

Suddenly Yuuri claps his hands, startling the three boys before he begins to skate away. “Now, if you don’t mind, could you three go sit in the stands?” All three nodded, becoming increasingly more confused, but knowing better than to argue after having spent so much time with Yuuri up to this point. Once the three boys were settled into the stands, Yuuri made a few small circles in the center of the arena before coming to stop in the middle. 

“Alright, Frankie, you are first. Pay close attention. I will expect you to remember this,” Yuuri shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth to carry his voice across the ice. As he finished, he reached into his pocket, pulling out a remote and clicking it, before returning it to his thigh pocket and zipping it shut.

Suddenly, Yuuri moved into a starting position, curling in upon himself with his arms raised to hide away his face. The cords of “Strip Me” by Natasha Bedingfield began to play and he moved, a large arcing beginning as he moved his hands away from his face and out to the side. Yuuri went through the movements, calling out to Frankie loudly with things such as “a triple toe loop here” or “a spin combo there”. 

Frankie leaned forward as he watched his coach, trying to take in the choreography as it was demonstrated to him. Yuuri was simply showing the order and doing simplified versions of the jumps and spins, but it was still the most coordinated and crisp skating they had seen from their coach yet. 

“This song requires a lot of emotion and free, wide movements,” Yuuri called out as the song began to come to an end. The tail end of the song drifted off, leaving Yuuri in the center of the ring in a stance much less closed off and confined than that of the beginning one. Yuuri breathed out a few times, pushing a few stray strands of hair back before looking up to the three boys in the stands.

“Fish, yours is next,” he called out before shimming his legs in place a few times and reaching into his pocket. 

“This is so exciting! We finally get to work on actual pieces!” Fish chirped out happily, bouncing on his seat. Frankie cleared his throat, moving from his nearly frozen state of before and releasing some of the tension in his shoulders. 

“That was too long to be a short program. I wonder what we'll be doing these for?” Frankie questioned out loud, pushing at his glasses and moving to rest his chin on his hands. Nix turned to look at Frankie, nodding slightly.

“I was wondering the same thing. He’ll probably tell us after he is done showing us, right?” Nix replied, fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt absentmindedly. Frankie hummed in response before a new song began to play and Yuuri moved. 

“Lady Marmalade” from Moulin Rouge began to play through the speakers, earning a wide-eyed look from Fish. The moves were much less fluid and open, and instead, were feminine, strong and empowering. While the previous song relied more on arms and swooping movements, this was heavy on the moving of hips and steps with more than a bit of flare. 

“Quad Toe loop here,” Yuuri called out, earning an excited squeak from Fish before he settled again, focusing on the movements. The song ended with a series of fast, strong movements before going into a fast spin which gradually slowed until the last notes of the song rang out. Yuuri leaned over as he finished, placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a moment before moving towards the stands. 

“This song will require a lot of strong contrasts,” Yuuri stated loudly before motioning to Nix. “Yours is last. Focus,” Yuuri murmured the last part, nodding to Nix once before turning and making his way back to the center.

“Dude, what is Coach Yuuri thinking? Who choreographed and chose these songs? Mine is like a woman power one,” Fish muttered confused, scratching as his head and beginning to fiddle with the end of his hair nervously. Nix was about to reply when Yuuri coughed to gain his attention and started the next song. 

Nix nearly choked on air when he heard the beginning notes of “Confident” by Demi Lovato come out of the speakers and Yuuri began to move. Yuuri started off slowly, doing wide, lilting loops about the ice before the song began to pick up and he called out, “Quad Salchow.”

This earned a pat on the shoulder from Fish and a smile from Frankie before Nix turned his attention back to his coach. The song only seemed to grow stronger and Nix noticed as the movements began to get stronger and a sense of seductiveness made their way into them. 

By the end of the song, just near the end, Yuuri yelled out a confident “Quad Flip” before performing the final movements and the song ended. Yuuri panted loudly as he finished, standing in the center of the ring and moving to wipe the sweat off his forehead. After a minute or so, he looked up to see the three boys frozen in the stands.

“WHAT?!” Fish yelled out suddenly, standing up and nearly knocking Nix over in the process. “You want him to do a Quad Flip as his last jump? Are you crazy?!” Fish yelled, for once throwing his care of Yuuri’s wrath to the wind. Yuuri crossed his arms over his chest, throwing a perturbed look across the rink and retorting, “I wouldn’t choreograph a piece a skater couldn’t do,” before clapping his hands.

“Now, all of you, get down here so we can start working on these!” He called and the three boys shot each other horrified looks before slowly making their ways back to the ice.

“At least we know now who made the programs. No wonder they are so spartan,” Fish muttered quietly as he shut the door to the rink behind him grumpily. 

* * *

Two days later, it was Frankie’s time for a one-on-one session with Yuuri. There were nearly an hour in and Frankie only seemed to get more frustrated. Suddenly he let out a grunt of annoyance, stopping his skating completely and pulling his glasses from his face in a frenzy.

“Hey, hey, hey. Calm down, what are you getting so worked up about?” Yuuri called out, making his way over to the agitated teenager. Frankie began to wipe at his glasses angrily before gritting out, “I can’t do this piece. I just can’t. I’m not emotional like Fish, nor am I passionate like Nix. I can’t skate to this properly!” 

Yuuri sighed in thought, mulling over what to say before sighing and motioning to where their waters sat on the railing. They moved towards them in silence before Yuuri spoke, “You know, there was a reason behind all those things I asked you guys to do individually.”

Frankie took a sip from his bottle, looking at Yuuri and waiting for him to continue. “For instance, I had Fish help out with the kid’s class so he could learn a little patience and how to be softer. He needs to learn how to be able to tone down his fierceness when needed,” Yuuri paused, taking a sip from his drink before beginning to speak again, “And observing you and Nix’s practice is so he can learn how to be more versatile, able to change from one style of skating to the next with ease.”

Frankie nodded and replied quietly, “That makes sense.”

“And take Nix. I asked him to join the older girl’s class because I want him to learn how to be sensual and enticing, less rough around the edges and standoffish like he is currently with his skating,” Yuuri moved his hands about as he spoke, his voice losing its normal coaching edge and becoming more fond. “And I want him to help coach the beginners class so he can gain confidence. The people just starting will be able to recognize his ability in an instance and I know being surrounded by those who are amazed by him will help him when it comes to his nervousness about his own capabilities,” Yuuri smiled softly, moving to place his drink back on the railing.

“And you,” Yuuri said quietly, moving to face Frankie, “I am having you do another class of ballet so you can learn to make your movements more fluid. You tend to focus so much on the precision and accuracy, that you become stiff,” Frankie nods at this, looking down slightly. “And the yoga is to help you relax. I see the way you get worked up when you skate, like today, where you get exceedingly frustrated with yourself. Sometimes, you just need to stop trying to be so perfect and just...have fun.”

Yuuri looked at him for a few moments, before a weird expression crossed his face and he reached for the remote to the rink speakers. “Here, hold on,” he said, looking down at the remote and pressing a few buttons with a determined look before smiling and putting it back on the railing. 

“Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne began to blast on the speakers and Yuuri let out a chuckle before reaching for Frankie’s wrist and pulling him lightly. Frankie sputtered at the touch, flailing slightly and resisting. Yuuri shot him a half-annoyed look and only proceeded to tighten his grip. 

“Come on Frankie. Just have fun while skating for once. I’ve seen you warm up to the other two over the past few months. It’ll be just like that,” Yuuri called out encouragingly before he pulled Frankie, pivoting him around by his arm and Yuuri remained in one place and spun. 

Yuuri began to laugh, dragging the boy about and spinning him randomly, throwing in random arm punches and singing along at random points. Eventually, Frankie began to join Yuuri in his laughter and together they skated about the rink, doing random, bizarre movements and play air instruments. The song looped into the next followed by another and another until finally, the coach and his student collapsed against the wall in a fit of laughs.

“See?” Yuuri said, trying to catch his breathe. “Skating is first and foremost, supposed to be fun,” he said with a smile directed at Frankie. The teenage boy felt like he was staring into direct sunlight for a moment before he unfroze and smiled back in return. 

“Come on, let’s lock up the rink,” Yuuri said, moving to get off the ice. Suddenly, he stopped, rubbing at his neck sheepishly as he looked back at Frankie. “Don’t tell the other two about this, especially Fish. He’ll want to blast that K-pop music he listens to over the speakers and goof off more than he already does,” Yuuri explained, his face dropping into one of annoyance as he finished his statement. Frankie nodded animatedly, his head moving rapidly, earning a laugh from Yuuri. He gave Frankie a few pats on the shoulder before moving to leave with a wave. 

* * *

The last week of July found the boys on a night off, lazing about their room in a varying degree of dress. Fish was practically naked, having complained about the “immense heat” and was currently laying off Nix’s bed in nothing but a pair of bright, lime green boxers. Nix was slightly better, having decided to at least put on a pair of shorts while Frankie was the most dressed of them all, with a tank top and pair of pajama pants on.

“Dude, I am melting just looking at you,” Fish whined as he continued to play on his DS. Frankie grunted in response, focusing on his book instead.

“Not everyone is as confident as you and can hang around in practically nothing,” Nix said without looking up from his phone. Fish stuck his tongue out, receiving one in return from Nix before he let out a sigh and sat up. 

“I just can’t seem to figure Coach Yuuri out. I heard him talking on the phone again today with ‘Vitya’. I swear it's like he turns into a different person when he talks to them half the time. Sometimes he’s all lovey dovey, which is super weird, and then other times? He’s yelling at them like he does us on the ice. Like, is that any way to talk to your wife?” Fish said in a huff, leaning to rest his face on his arm. Nix moved, crossing his legs and putting down his phone with a frown.

“Dude, we went over this a thousand times. Maybe it's his sister,” Nix retorted back. Fish made a face, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

“And like I’ve said a million times, it is definitely not his sister. No one talks so cutesy like that to their sibling. Just, no,” Fish explained, shaking his head adamantly. 

Nix put his hands up in defeat before falling back on his bed with a small grunt. “I don’t know man. I’ve never had sibling. Maybe I don’t get why it would be weird,” he said, smirking as he heard Fish sputter indignantly. 

“Hey! Stop pulling the orphan boy card on me! Makes me feel like a shitty person and you know it , ya giant turd,” Fish complained, lunging over at Nix and flopping on him roughly. 

“I mean, he is right Nix. It's unfair to use your disadvantage against him,” Frankie said suddenly, throwing in his two cents from where he sat quietly at the head of the bed. Nix turned, pinning Fish beneath him who let out a screeching “Hey!” before he looked up with a deadpan look at Frankie.

“But if I don’t turn my disadvantage into an advantage than what’s the point?” He replied, remaining still as Fish struggled to get out of his grasp and making noises which began to sound less like a struggling teenager and more like a pissed off cat. Frankie sighed, putting a bookmark in his place and setting it on the drawer.

“Nix, let go of Fish. You know how sad he gets when you remind me how small he is,” Frankie murmured, pushing his glasses back up onto his face. Nix shrugged his shoulders before releasing the boy and throwing himself to the side next to him. Fish sat up almost immediately, moving to fish his hair and throwing Nix a dirty look.

“Cheating bastard. You totally caught me off guard,” he screeched with a pout. Nix smirked before picking back up his phone and beginning to scroll on it again. 

“But no, real talk,” Fish said after a few moments of silence as he continued to untangle his hair, “Coach Yuuri is the most confusing man I have ever met. He is like a demon on the ice, yet, he is super cutesy off it and like will encourage you and buys us stuff at the cafe sometimes. He never does any jumps around us or any spins for that matter, yet he went to competitions when he was younger, so he must know how to do a few. And?” Fish paused, attempting to add dramatic effect, “He knows how to choreograph extremely high level programs. Some of the moves he put in our pieces I’ve never even seen before!” 

“It's not like we understand it any more than you do,” Nix retorted, crossing his arms. “He is a walking, talking, human paradox.”

“Exactly! My second theory that he was raised by monks is only starting to sound more and more realistic at this point,” Nix yelled back, nodding excitedly. Frankie raised his eyebrow in response.

“Do you even know what that word means?” Frankie asked, staring Fish down. They had a staring contest for a few moments before finally Fish caved, looking away first and crossing his arms childishly.

“Okay, no! I don’t know what it means! But it sounded good, so I went with it. Sue me,” Fish intoned haughtily, sticking his tongue out.

“Fine. I’ll see you in court,” Frankie replied, causing the three to break off into a peal of laughter. 

* * *

“Alright boys, I have an announcement to make,” Yuuri said suddenly a week later near the end of their group practice. The three teenagers made their way over, pushing at each other lightly and having light discussion, which ended once they were in front of their coach.

“So, lately we’ve been working on your individual pieces, but I never really told you what they were for,” Yuuri began, pausing to gauge the boys reactions for a moment before continuing, “So today, I am going to tell you why you are working on them. In two weeks, this rink is going to be holding a Charity event,” Yuuri started before suddenly Fish spoke up.

“Wait! Is that what those signs in the hallway are for?” He asked excitedly, raising his hand after he had already begun to speak. Yuuri shot him a dirty look for interrupting but nodded nonetheless.

“We are going to have a 12 hour long skating event to raise money for disabled children. During those 12 hours, skaters from this rink will be performing different pieces constantly. The longest there will be no one on the ice will be for the few times we need to fix the ice,” Yuuri explained, pointing to the machine in the corner. 

“The event is going to be televised as well as open to the public, so people can donate either through calling in or physically in person. The owner of the rink planned this and since everyone is expected to skate, that is why you all have your own programs,” Yuuri said, moving to place one of his hands on his hip.

“Wait! Victor planned this! That’s so cool!” Fish exclaimed, jumping slightly. Yuuri chuckled slightly at his reaction before his face turned more serious.

“In addition to our skaters, there will also be famous skaters from the community coming as well. People I have mentioned in the past, such as Yuri, Phichit, Otabek and Chris, will all be coming,” he had barely finished speaking before Fish was jumping up and letting out a whoop of excitement. He threw his arms around the two taller boys, pulling them down to his level and smiling brightly.

“THIS IS SO EXCITING!” He hollered out, spinning them all in a circle and dancing lightly in place. Yuuri cleared his throat, but his serious facial expression began to break at the edges. 

“I know this is all very exciting, but we have a lot of work to do, myself included. I have a lot of planning to do, and therefore, will need you all to be completely focused on the task at hand.”

The three boys nodded in unison, smiling in varying degrees. It was easy to see they were excited, even Frankie, who was for once smiling without holding back. Yuuri gave them all a half smirk before turning to exit the rink. He paused in the door, and without turning back called out, “And oh, the three of you will also be doing a trio program together. We start it tomorrow. See you later boys!”

Fish, Frankie and Nix stood frozen on the ice, watching as their coach undid his skates in a flash and left. It was not until they heard the sound of the door to the arena closing that they all let out a simultaneous, “WHAT?!”

* * *

The next few days were crazy. Between their additional individual practices and duties and their programs, as well as beginning work on the new trio program, the three boys barely had time to breathe. It wasn’t hard to see how all the work was affecting their coach as well, as he began to show up to morning practice a few minutes late and in worse and worse disarray.

His baggy eyes, which had gotten better over time, came back with a vengeance and there were a few times they saw their coach come out of his office in the morning, wearing the same clothes as the night before. They could only imagine the amount of work that went into planning something so extravagant, and therefore had made a pact to be “the least annoying possible” as a group. 

Regardless of their efforts, it was plain to see that their coach was stressed to the max and it showed. He was getting even skinner, being on par with the weight of a full-time skater like themselves, unlike his normally chunkier self. It didn’t help to quell the boy’s worries about their coach but there was little they could do, as they knew bringing it up would only anger their coach.

While the trio were doing their best to not be annoying, they still managed to get on their coach’s nerves. The trio program was difficult, including numerous trade offs and odd movements and sequences one would never see in a traditional program of any kind, single or pairs. Having three skaters was something unheard of in professional ice skating and was only done in ice shows or other similar events. While the program wasn’t going to be in front of a judge, they still wanted to do it to the best of their ability, making their numerous mistakes only more frustrating. 

“Dammit! Sorry!” Fish called out as he missed the pass off between Frankie and Nix once again. “All for Love” by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting was paused, once again and Yuuri let out a sigh of frustration.

“Fish, you are half a second behind on the spin still. That’s why your hand misses Nix’s every time he reaches for you when Frankie hands you off. And Frankie, you need to loosen up your stance a bit. You go too wide into the spin and get into Fish’s space, which is probably not helping his timing any,” Yuuri shot out, crossing his arms and looking at them sternly. 

The trio let out a chorus of “Yes Coach!” before moving back into position. Yuuri hit play again and they let the song play before getting back to the portion they were working on today. They went into their simultaneous spins, Frankie and Fish spinning directly next to each other before Frankie grabbed Fish around the waist and spun him off to Nix. Fish landed in Nix’s arms correctly for once, but when they went into their next movement together, Nix’s skate went too close to Fish’s, tripping them both up in the process.

“Okay! Stop, stop, stop! Let’s end it there for now. At least you did the pass off correctly. Let’s pick this back up tomorrow morning,” Yuuri called out, taking off his glasses and running his other hand down his face with a sigh. Yuuri sighed once again, louder before heading to the exit, leaving the arena without even taking off his skates. 

After Yuuri left, the three boys skated towards each other, coming to a stop in the center of the arena.

“Well that sucked,” Nix stated with a deadpan, earning a nod from the two other boys.

“I feel bad,” Fish said, rubbing at his arms roughly, “Coach Yuuri is really stressed out about the Gala and we keep messing up the routine.”

“The least we can do is try to get better at it to make it easier for him. If he doesn’t have to worry about us, that’s one less thing on his plate,” Frankie stated, running his hand through his hair. Nix and Fish nodded, before Fish reached out his closed fist.

“Come on guys, let’s make a pact. We will use all the extra time we have to work on this together so we can be ready in time for the gala,” Fish shot out determinedly, eyes fiery.

Frankie and Nix looked to each other, nodding once, before turning back to Fish and putting in their fists as well.

“For Coach Yuuri on the count of three,” Fish said smirking, face set and excited.

“One, two, three…”

“FOR COACH YUURI!"

* * *

Three days later finds the boys in another group practice, making drastically less mistakes. Yuuri seems to be pleased with their progress, even complimenting them on their rapid improvement and dedication when suddenly his phone goes off. He apologizes, waving the boys off and pulls out his phone, skating off to the side. 

“Hey Vitya,” he says, voice light and cheery. The boys watch on as Yuuri’s face drops and slowly, contorts in frustration.

“HAH!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU FORGOT?!” Yuuri hollered out, leaning over and yelling into the phone. The boys heard a muffled series of repeated statements from the other end as Yuuri huffed and began to pull at his hair.

“Ladno, ladno! I’ll call him right now!” Yuuri retorts in a panic before muttering a quiet and almost tender ‘love you baka’ and hanging up. The boys watch as Yuuri panically scrolls through his phone before clicking on a contact and bringing the phone up to his ear. It rings a few times before they pick up and a loud voice echoes through the phone.

“Yurio! Privet! My husband is a baka!” Yuuri pauses, chuckling at whatever the other person says and sighing slightly as he runs his hands through his hair frustratedly. He stops suddenly, seeing the three boys are staring at him in absolute shock and skates away awkwardly. The boys remain frozen, unable to catch the words Yuuri is speaking, which they discover are again in another language before after a minute or so he looks confused and brings the phone down from his face. 

Yuuri skates over to them, looking off-put. The boys, who have yet to move, simply stare at him before suddenly Fish screams out, “THAT FIRST CALL WAS FROM YOUR HUSBAND?!” Yuuri is startled by the loudness, leaning back slightly before his face turns sour and he crosses his arm.

“Hah? Yeah, so what? Don’t ask stupid questions! We have work to do!” He calls out, shooing them along and telling them to get back to work. The three boys attempt to argue, trying to ask him something, anything, but all attempts are immediately shut down with a death glare and threat to unplug the Wi-Fi if they don’t focus on their program. 

They have been working productively for only a few minutes when suddenly, Yuuri’s phone goes off again and he groans before answering it. He pulls the phone away from his ear when the person on the other line yells out, “PICK ME UP FROM THE AIRPORT IN 10 HOURS OR ELSE KATSUDON!” 

“Wait! I just called you about coming! How did you already get to the airport?!” Yuuri yelled back, bringing the phone back up to his ear. He immediately regretted the decision as the person retorted, “I WAS NEAR IT WHEN YOU CALLED OKAY?! IT’S NOT LIKE I WAS EXCITED OR ANYTHING. DON’T FORGET TO PICK ME UP! BYE,” before the line went dead. 

Yuuri looked at the phone exasperatedly, reaching his hand up to rub at his temples before dismissing the boys for the day and leaving the rink, phone in hand. 

“What the hell was that?!” Fish screeched the moment Yuuri was out of earshot, turning to look at the other two with wide eyes.

“Apparently both of you were wrong. Vitya was not his girlfriend or his wife, but in fact, his husband,” Frankie muttered, looking off in the direction Yuuri had left with a distant look on his face. 

“Also, who the heck is Yurio?! What is going on?!” Fish continued, putting his hands on his head and groaning in frustration.

“I have no idea dude. But apparently he is going to be here in ten hours whoever he is,” Nix replied, having moved for the first time. The three boys eventually began to move towards the exit, grumbling about confusing coaches and their weird lives as they went. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you are! Hope it was worth the wait. I apologize for any typos or mistakes. I've been working on this since I got home at 10 pm and its now like 2 in the morning so. Like I said before, the last chapter should be the last. Let me know what you think! This got way more response than I ever could have imagined and I am over the moon about it. Thank you so much!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOW EDITED! Thank little grumpy sisters lol
> 
> Ahh! Can't believe I managed to get this done so early compared to what I had planned! I've been working on this for like 6 hours now, so hopefully it was worth the effort. Anyway, thank you for all the feedback! This has been so great to write and see people enjoy it! Thank you!

The next morning, as the boys are warming up, they are suddenly interrupted by the door to the rink slamming open. Through it rushes a visibly agitated man with long blonde hair wearing a leopard-print hood on his head.

“KATSUDON! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!” The man yells out, looking about the rink in frustration before walking over to the stands in a huff and throwing himself down. The three boys look at each other, before suddenly Fish yells out “NOSES!” and Nix is left the last man without a finger to his nose. Nix sighs as the two other boys chuckle at his misfortune and he slowly makes his way to get off the ice.

He throws blocks on his skates in a rush and slightly jogs his way over to the man. “Excuse me sir, can I help you?” Nix tries politely.

“HAH?!” the man yells, whipping his head up from his phone to glare at Nix. Nix takes a small step back, startled by the pure ferocity of the man and tries again.

“I said, can I help you? Are you looking for someone?” Nix says, trying to stand straighter in the face of such a scary man. The blonde man nods fast before crossing his arms across his chest.

“Yeah! I’m looking for Katsudon, you know, chunky Asian man, glasses, head coach of this blasted rink,” he spits out.

“Do mean Coach Yuuri?” Nix asks, knowing only one person who fits the description but unsure why this foreign sounding angry man is calling him a random word he believes isn’t in English.

“Yuuri. Katsudon. Same difference. Where is he?! He told me he would be here at 7!” The man retorts, waving his hands about angrily. Nix pauses to pull back his sleeve and look at his watch, which shows the time to be 6:56.

“Well, he should be here any minute. He’s normally pretty punctual,” Nix replies, pulling his sleeve back over his watch. The blonde man sits forward angrily, pulling off his hood in the process.

“HAH?! If he is coaching at 7, then why wouldn’t he be here before to warm-up?!” The man spits out. Nix begins to rub at his arm awkwardly, wanting nothing more than to be away from this scary stranger and his yelling.

“Well, he normally just kind of throws his skates on and we start. He doesn’t really do a lot to be honest. Just skates around and points out what we need to fix. Sometimes he will demonstrate the arm movements, but mostly he just stands off to the side and yells out to us,” Nix explains, taking a step back as he finishes in hopes the man will get the hint he wants to get back on the ice.

The man sits back, smirking, as he crosses his arms back over his chest, “Huh. Katsudon must have really let himself go since the last time I saw him then.” Nix goes to ask what he means when the door to the rink opens and their coach comes in. He sees Nix and the blonde man and reaches his hand up in greeting.

“Yurio! You actually came! I thought for sure you would sleep in after getting here so late last night,” Yuuri says with a smile, coming to stand before him. Yuuri waves Nix off, telling him to get back on the ice and begins to talk with Yurio.

Nix looks back as he walks, watching his coach and Yurio interact before getting back onto the ice. Frankie and Fish immediately skate over the second he gets on the ice.

“Who the hell is that? He is one angry dude,” Fish asks, putting his hand up to his mouth and whispering loudly.

“Apparently that is Yurio, the guy Yuuri was on the phone with last night,” Nix gossips back, voice lowered. The two other boys let out a chorus of ooo’s before suddenly, the sound of the rink door opening is heard.

The trio turn and watch as their Coach as well as Yurio come on the ice, having been so focused on their discussion they completely missed the angry blonde man putting on skates. The two make their way over to him and stop, Yuuri smiling as Yurio stands with a glare.

“Good morning boys. I would like to introduce you to Yurio, or as most people know him Yuri Plisetsky,” Yuuri explains, placing his hand on Yurio’s shoulder gently.

The three boys stare on silently before suddenly letting out a group scream of confusion and surprise. Yuuri gives them an exasperated look at their reaction, looking tired, and apologizes to Yurio who is standing with a sour face on his look.

“YURIO IS YURI PLISETSKY?!” Fish screams, bending at the knees and raising his hands up and down repeatedly.

“That’s who you were talking to on the phone the other day?!” Frankie hollers out almost immediately afterwards, shaking his hands in front of him and sputtering.

“You know Yuri Plisetsky…” Nix whispers more to himself, his face lost-looking as he starts down at his hands in confusion.

“What is wrong with you three? I’ve told you stories about him before,” Yuuri says, rubbing at the back of his neck sheepishly. Yurio tsk’s at this, shooting Yuuri an annoyed look.

“I thought you were just a fan of him or something! We didn’t know you knew him!” Fish yells back, skating forward to hold his coach by his sweatshirt. Yuuri reaches down, releasing Fish’s hold on his sweatshirt and pushing him away slightly before crossing his arms.

“I’ve known Yurio for years.  Come on boys, enough of your freaking out. Yurio wants to see what you’ve been working on,” Yuuri said, dropping his force into his normal coach voice. The three boys immediately straighten up, letting out a yes coach and going off to work on their programs in three different corners of the rink.

Yurio lets out a huff under his breath, turning to follow Yuuri as he goes to stand against the side of the rink.  

“You’ve got them wrapped around your finger huh? Just like your dumb husband,” he says haughtily, crossing his arms as he begins to watch the three boys work on different parts of their programs.

Yuuri shoots him an annoyed look before calling out to Fish to fix his free leg or else and leaning back against the railing. They remain in silence for a few minutes, watching the three boys do bits and pieces of their programs, only interrupted by Yuuri calling out to them with adjustments to be made.

Suddenly, Yurio calls out to Fish, “Hey, you! With the crazy hair!” Fish flails for a moment mid-spin before coming to a stop and turning to look in Yurio’s direction.

“Your piece is the Lady Marmalade one, correct?” He calls out, making his way over to the center of the rink to join him. Fish nods animatedly, standing frozen otherwise as the famous skater makes his way over to him.

Yurio skates up behind him, moving to press against him flatly and grabbing his arms. He bumps the short boy with his knee, which rests against his lower back and moves his arms by the wrists.

“Your movements are too stocky,” Yurio states, before releasing his arm and sliding his hand to his hip and pushing on it. “You need to move from here, first and foremost. Women use and move their hips more,” he continues as he releases the boy and moves to skate in front of him.

He moves, bringing his arms to a gentle arc in front of him and placing his right hip out. Slowly, he spins on the tip of his blade, leading with his hip, before finishing the spin and bringing his hands down his hips slowly. He repeats the action, showing it but skating off the tip of his opposite blade, making the same, slow, rolling movements before finishing.

“Like that Pinky,” he snorts. Fish stares at him, mouth wide open and unmoving. “Come on! Don’t just stand there! Do it!”

Fish shakes his head, closing his mouth in the process and moving into position. “Yes Mr. Plisetsky.” From across the ring, Yuuri smiles fondly, watching as Yurio begins to yell at the three boys about different things, showing them just why he was such a versatile skater when he competed.

Yuuri is just about to skate over to them and see what Yurio is currently yelling at Frankie about when the door to the rink bangs open. Yuuri jumps slightly, having not expected anyone else to be there when he chokes slightly.

Together, a group of three men enters, all chatting with skates in their hands. They put them on quickly before two of them practically skip over to the door with the other following behind. The group of three men skate over to Yuuri, the two who had skipped before rushing out with a “YUURI!” and tackling him to the ice.

Yuuri lets out a startled oof! as he falls to the ice and the group of men breaks out into a fit of laughter. “Phichit! Chris!” Yuuri laughs out, as the two men move off him and let him stand back up. The third man skates over, standing with a smile and Yuuri greets him as well, “Otabek! What are you all doing here? I thought you weren’t going to be here until the day before the charity event?”

“Oh Yuuri, we heard our little kitten got here last night and we all changed our flights to get here today!” Chris explained, wrapping his arm around Yuuri’s shoulder. Yuuri smiled softly, and motioned to the three teenagers and Yurio, who had stopped their work and were making their way over the second they heard all the commotion.

“I thought I heard a perverted old man and a chatty Kathy get on the ice,” Yurio spat out, looking annoyed and crossing his arms before pausing for a moment, “Oh, Otabek, you came too? I thought you told me you had to go to the conference tomorrow?”

Otabek smiled slightly before skating up to Yurio and standing across from him, “It got moved to yesterday. By the time I got back to the apartment, you were already gone. I didn’t know where you went until I got a text from Phichit asking if I was with you.”

Yurio looked down awkwardly, looking slightly apologetic, “Sorry. I forgot to text you. I just happened to be near the airport and took the next plane out.”

Otabek turned his head to the side slightly, giving him an odd look, “What are you talking about? When I left you were still on the couch watching Animal Planet. The airport is like twenty minutes away from our apartment.”

Yurio’s eyes widened as he shoved Otabek and shoved him, “Can it Beka!”

Yuuri, Phichit and Chris watched on in amusement, trying to hide their chuckling behind their hands. Even to this day Yurio still tried to act like he hated them all, when in reality they had all become his closest friends.

This entire time the teenagers had simply been watching on in confusion, which Yuuri finally noticed. “Oh, boys!” he started, turning to face them. “Say hello to Phichit Chulanont,” Yuuri pointed to the Thai boy who smiled brightly and shot them a peace sign. “Christophe Giacometti,” He pointed to the Swiss man who smirked and wrapped himself around Yuuri from behind before sending them a kiss. “And Otabek Altin.” Otabek nodded at them, raising his hand in greeting.

The three boys stood quietly for almost half a minute before Fish did a perfect rendition of the dance moved called “The death drop” and Frankie and Fish started to yell incoherently.

“Whoa! Cool!” Phichit called out, pulling out his phone and beginning to take pictures. “You are Fish right? Show me how to do that!”

* * *

For the rest of the week leading up to the night before the Charity event, the three teenagers watched as their Coach interacted with the famous skaters and grew exceedingly more confused.

“I swear, Coach Yuuri knows more famous people than most famous people do,” Fish whined out, laying underneath Nix’s bed where he had made a nest of blankets.

“How does he know all of them? It doesn’t make sense,” Frankie replied, flipping the pages of his book frustrated. Nix hummed from his spot beside him on his bed, clicking at Fish’s DS angrily before sighing and throwing it on the bed.

“Maybe he knows them because he is the head coach? Think about it. Victor freaking Nikiforov owns the rink. He has had to have done stuff in the past where he called in his famous skater friends. Maybe Yuuri met them then?” Nix shot out suddenly, rubbing at his eyes before falling back and leaning against the wall.

“Hey! Yeah! That makes sense!” Fish exclaimed, sitting up before letting out an oww! when he hit his head on the bottom of the bed.

“Fish, that’s the third time you’ve done that in the past twenty minutes. Why did you have to make your lair in such a dangerous spot?” Frankie intoned, not looking up from his book.

“It's the perfect amount of darkness and it's a small space. Its prime nest space alright? And a little danger never killed anybody,” Fish retorted, waving his hand about sassily.

“Alright, I’ll make sure to put that on your tombstone,” Frankie replied, earning a slap in the foot from the boy under the bed.

“Shut up Glasses. At least I can see on the ice,” Fish shot back, smirking up at Frankie from where he was lying.

“Play nice children. Mommy doesn’t like it when you fight,” Nix said deadpan, causing Fish and Frankie to break off into laughter. Nix joined in after a few moments before suddenly stopping and sitting up.

“Dammit, I left my vest at the rink,” he exclaimed before getting up and making his way to the door.

“Don’t get lost on the way back Mommy. No late night stops at the liquor store,” Fish called out cackling.

“At least I can drink in some countries unlike you small fry,” Nix shot back, earning him a shoe to the head as he shut the door behind him with a laugh.

Nix threw on his shoes lazily at the door, before leaving and jogging across the parking lot to the rink. The door was luckily still unlocked, which was odd for this late.

“Maybe Coach Yuuri left it open for the other skaters staying nearby in case they wanted to practice for tomorrow,” Nix said to himself before opening the door. He made his way into the rink quietly, opening the door slowly, and was surprised to find the lights were still on. He was about to make his way over to the stands where he knew he had left his vest when he heard the sound of blades on the ice.

Nix ducked as someone went by him, before slowly standing up and looking out at the rink. It was empty except for a single skater. Nix realized suddenly that there was music playing slowly from the speakers, some sort of italian sounding classical music.

Nix snuck quietly to the stands, not wanting to startle the skater and sat down quietly in the corner furthest from the rink. He watched as the skater went through a series of dizzying steps, movements sharp and fluid, clearly those of a practiced professional.

It was hard to see from this far away, but the man had slicked back black hair, held in a low ponytail at the back of his head and was cleanly shaven. The man practically glided across the ice, his blades humming across the frozen plane and looking like something out a movie. Nix let out a breath of air as the man moved into position to jump and did a perfect Quad Flip followed by a Triple Salchow, landing it with ease.

Nix felt his heart speed up, watching this nameless man and in that moment, he understood what people meant when they talked about athletes that seemed to transcend human capabilities. The man moved into a horrifyingly fast spin combo, barely moving from his spot as he went before slowing and coming to a stop. The man stopped, breathing heavily and Nix took this moment to make his way quietly down the stands, grabbing his vest in the process and leaving through the back door.

Nix practically sprinted back to the apartment, opening the front door with a bang and barely taking time to shut and lock it before running up the stairs. He smashed the door open, vest in hand and breathing heavily.

“GUYS! I JUST SAW THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER!” He got out in between huffs of breath. Fish shot up from his spot under the bed, slamming his head again and moaning before crawling out lamely.

“Warn a dude! I thought someone was coming in here to kill us man!” Fish yelled out, rubbing at his head with a sour look as he sat cross-legged on the floor. Nix walked over to him, apologizing multiple times before dropping his vest on his bed and beginning to pace back and forth.

“I just saw the most amazing thing ever. I can’t even believe it was real. Was it real? Who even was that? Was it one of the famous skaters? It wasn’t one of the skaters Coach Yuuri introduced us to,” Nix began to ramble off, walking back and forth like he was possessed and waving his arms about. Frankie placed his book down on the bed and walked over to Nix, grabbing him by the shoulders and stopping him in his tracks.

“Nix, calm down. What did you see?” Frankie asked, holding Nix in place and looking at him with a concerned look.

“There was this man, a skater. And he was skating. Well, I mean, what else would he be doing at the rink. But ah! Anyway, he was skating and it was like watching a god, a god I swear! He practically floated across the ice and he did a Quad Flip, Triple Salchow combo, and he landed it like it was nothing! Has that ever even been done in competition before? I don’t even know!” Nix rambled, lolling his head to the side as he spoke.

“WAIT WHAT!? ARE YOU SURE?!” Fish screamed, standing up and making his way over to the two boys and grabbing Nix from Frankie’s grasp.

“YOU BEST NOT BE LYING TO ME BOY!” Fish hollered in his face, pulling him down by his shirt.

“I swear! It was like, the most amazing thing I have ever seen!” Nix exclaimed, throwing his arms above his head and moaning as he finished. Suddenly he froze, his eye locking on something behind him before he pulled from Fish’s hold with ease and walked over to Frankie’s drawer with purpose.

He grabbed Frankie’s electric razor, holding it up with a half-crazed look on his face as he turned to Fish and Frankie and smiled. “I’m just gonna borrow this, okay? Thanks,” before leaving the room in a rush, shutting the door behind him.

“The actual hell?” Fish said after a few moments, staring at the door in confusion.

* * *

The next morning the three boys showed up to the rink at 10:00, after having received a text from their coach to stay out of the way until then the previous night. The Charity would be running from noon til midnight and a lot of people would be coming and going in the early morning to set up the rink. The three boys got up at 8:30 and went to their favorite cafe to grab lunch before jogging on the way back to warm-up.

Upon opening the door to the rink, it was like they were hit with a wall of smells and sounds. Even though the public were not going to be let into the rink until 11:30, it was already full of people, with stalls set up for donating, food and an announcer's booth. It was like their rink had been turned into a local carnival with the amount of noise and people and they all stood in the doorway frozen for a few moments until a gruff voice called out to them.

“Boys! Come this way!” Otabek called out, from where he stood near the announcer’s booth. The three nodded, maneuvering their way through all the skaters from the rink and the workers before reaching Otabek.

“Your coach told me to tell you that you probably won’t see a lot of him today, seeing as he is managing all of this. So he asked me to keep an eye on you all and make sure you all get on the ice at the right times. Do you know what times you guys are going on?” He asked, pushing Fish lightly out of the way when two men tried to go by carrying a few large pieces of wood.

“What the heck is the wood for?” Fish interrupted, pointing to the two men.

“They are building a temporary wall around the south entrance and covering it with black fabric to make a makeshift loading area for the skaters. Its right in front of the changing rooms so skaters can wait there on standby to make things go smoother without distracting the audience,” Otabek explained, ushering the three teens out of the way as another set of works went by with more wood and he moved them onto the announcer's booth.

He pointed to a binder on the desk full of papers before explaining, “This is the order of skaters that Yuuri set up. Its timed and includes breaks for fixing the ice as well as some time worked in for mishaps.” He flipped through a few pages before pointing to a Frankie’s name.

“Frankie solo piece is at 1:45,” he flipped to the next page, pointing to the next name, “Fish, you are on a little later at 3:15,” he flipped two more pages and pointed to the last name, “And you Nix are at 5:50,” he picked up the binder, flipping to the last page. “Your group piece will be one of the last performances of the night, right after Victor’s solo piece, and will be at 11:35.” He put the binder down, closing it and leaving it before motioning to the stands.

“For now, I think we should get out of the way and wait until they need our help when the construction and vendors are done setting up.”

The three teens nodded and followed behind the man as he swiftly maneuvered through the people and led them to a spot high up in the stands. They sat down, and began asking Otabek for last minute advice when they heard multiple sets of shoes approaching. The four looked up to see Chris, Phichit, and Yurio coming up, shooting varying degrees of greeting their way before sitting down with them.

“This is all so exciting! Victor really went over the top for this,” Phichit said excitedly, taking selfies and posing with a neutral-faced Otabek. He encouraged him to do something and half-heartedly the man lifted his hand in a peace symbol, earning him an excited yay! from Phichit as he shot away. Yurio snorted, leaning forward on his knee which he had placed on the row below him.

“Of course. What else do you expect? Its Victor. Not even Katsudon can stop him when he gets like this,” Yurio sighed, watching as two women workers argued over where to place the cups on their table.

“Mr. Plisetsky, why do you always call Coach Yuuri that word?” Fish piped up, looking at Yurio curiously.

“I told you to stop calling me that,” Yurio huffed, turning to look at Fish exasperatedly. Fish held up his hands defensively, apologizing repeatedly.

“Yurio calls Yuuri Katsudon because it's your coach’s favorite food. It's a Japanese dish. I think in English it would roughly translate to,” Phichit paused here, tapping his finger at his lips, “Pork Cutlet Bowl.” He smiled wide as he finished.

“Oh! Okay! I could never figure out what you were saying. I thought maybe it was a swear!” Fish admitted awkwardly. Chris let out a bark of laughter, holding at his stomach and bending over.

“He has your number Yurio. Half of what this little kitten says probably is a swear,” Chris said in between laughs, leaning down towards the teenagers with a smirk. Yurio yelled out a hey! at him before hitting him upside the head in anger.

“Ah! My beautiful face!” Chris whined, holding his cheek dramatically.

Suddenly, a stuttering voice came over the loudspeaker. “Would all skaters for today’s charity please make their way to the lobby? I’ve been asked to round up all the skaters for today’s event.”

The teenagers looked over to the announcer’s booth to see two men standing by the microphone. Coach Ben was the one speaking, looking nervous before suddenly the short man next to him, with blonde hair which had a red streak in it took the mic away from him.

“Hello? Did you all hear him? Mr. Yuuri wants you all to come to the lobby! Hello? HELLO?!” the short man said into the mic repeatedly.

“Ugh. Who invited the chicken nugget?” Yurio complained as the group began to make their way down the stands. The trio shot each other a confused look, mouthing the words “chicken nugget” back and forth to each other as they followed the group of skaters.

They made their way to the lobby, which was pack full of skaters of all ages and levels. Every skating class taught at the rink would be performing with certain members of each class getting small group or solo performances. The group stood at the back, waiting to see why they were called when suddenly a voice called out, “I’m too short! Quick, Coach Ben, put me on your shoulders!” They heard a scuffle before suddenly the aforementioned “chicken nugget” was lifted onto Coach Ben’s shoulders and let out a loud, “ATTENTION PLEASE!”

The large group of people in the lobby silenced, all turning to look at the short man sitting on the coach’s shoulders with odd looks. “Thank you! I, Minami Kenjirou, have been asked by Mr. Yuuri to gather all the skaters. Starting at 11:30, the public will be allowed into the rink. It is at this time that all skaters should be in the dressing room or back rooms, as we do not want anyone to see any of the skaters UNTIL the opening ceremony.”

Coach Ben cleared his throat, voice shaking, “So pl-please be aware of th-the time.” Minami leaned down, patting him on the head and saying, “Good job Coach ben! See, the famous skaters aren’t scary!”

“After the opening ceremony, you are allowed to be out with the public. Feel free to eat and sit in the stands to watch the other performances. But make sure you are warmed up and prepared to be on the ice for your performances! Thank you!” Minami finished before hopping down from his perch. The group of skaters let out a chorus of agreements before dispersing.

* * *

“Frankie, darling, don’t even worry. You’ve been learning from the best for the past week,” Chris said haughtily, smirking at the tall teenage boy in the changing room. He was next to go into the staging area, which was darkened and slightly muffled the sounds from the rink.

“Yeah, no worries, just take the stick out of your butt before you go on and you’ll be all set!” Fish said with a smile, grabbing the taller boy from behind and swinging him around once. Frankie shot a glare at him before taking off his glasses and handing them to Fish.

“I wish I could see Coach Yuuri before I go on. He wasn’t at the opening ceremony,” Frankie sighed, moving to take off his jacket.

“I heard one of the announcers got lost on his way here and he had to run out to find him. That’s why Victor did the opening ceremony,” Nix said, coming to place a hand on Frankie’s shoulder and squeezing it gently.

“Francis Barbetti, to staging,” a man called out from the staging area. Frankie went to move, and was suddenly stopped by Fish throwing his arms around Frankie from behind and hugging him harshly.

“Make me proud Francis Barbetti,” Fish said into Frankie’s back, his voice low and serious for once.

“Of course Xavier Fisk.”

* * *

“And that was Francis Barbetti, skating to ‘Strip Me’. He is one of three young up-and-coming men being trained in preparation for this skating season!” The announcer called out, as Frankie made his way off the ice with a smile plastered on his face. He made it into the changing room and was halfway through taking off his outfit when he was suddenly jumped on by two bodies.

“FRANKIE! THAT WAS AMAZING!” Fish hollered out, hanging off Frankie with a wide, close-eyed smile.

“That was your best rendition yet! Coach Yuuri is going to be so happy,” Nix offered, releasing his hold on the taller boy.

Frankie smirked, turning to look at Fish and crossing his arms. “Top that Mr. Fisk.” Fish smile dropped as his look turned steely.

“You are on Mr. Barbetti,” before turning in a huff and leaving the changing room.

“Where do you think he is going?” Nix said, head turned slightly to the side and moving to lean against the lockers.

“I haven’t the faintest idea. Probably something equally crazy as giving yourself an undercut on one side the night before an event,” Frankie said cheekily, looking at Nix with a pointed look. Nix blushed slightly, leaning up to brush his fingers over the now shaved side of his head.

“I just got really inspired by that skater last night. He didn’t even have one. I just… I don’t know man, I felt like it fit my piece,” Nix admitted, pulling at the one gold earring he had opted to put in for the first time since coming to be taught under Coach Yuuri.

He had gotten it on a dare but most coaches frowned upon skaters wearing jewelry and had purposely not worn one in awhile. It stung slightly putting on in after so long, but ultimately, he felt like it was worth it. He felt like his “new” look fit his piece. It finally made him feel like he was ready to do it and do it well.

* * *

Almost two hours later found the trio back together again in the changing room after having been apart since Frankie’s performance. Nix and Frankie were sitting and waiting for Fish to show up and prepare for his performance when they heard the door burst open.

In walked Yurio, who had done his hair up in braids around the side of his head, followed by Fish. Nix and Frankie stared as Fish got closer, realizing where he had probably been for the past almost two hours.

“Hey guys! Ready to watch me kick ass?” Fish said, putting his hand on his hip. His hair was no longer down and loose or in a messy bun like he normally did it for skating. Much like Yurio, it was braided around his head in a crown with the rest hanging down in large, loose curls. It also looked like he had put on make-up, the most noticeable of all his bright-pink lipstick which matched his magenta colored hair to a T.  Sure, Fish had always been a bit on the feminine side, but like this, he looked like he really could be a girl.

“Wow. So you can put makeup on a pig,” Nix whistled out, arms crossed. Fish snarled, leaping forward to pull Nix’s head into a choke hold and pulling him back and forth.

“Take that back, you hot-topic reject! I am fabulous!” Fish gritted out as Nix laughed, trying to pull away. Frankie quietly pulled the two apart, having stared the entire time but being silent.

“So Mr. Barbetti, what do you think? Good enough to pull off this woman-power program?” Fish questioned, putting his hands on his hips and smiling wide.

“Wow. You really do look like a girl,” Frankie whispered, adjusting his glasses a few times.

“Hey! That’s woman to you! You better watch my performance. I’m about to blow your little league program out of the water!” Before skipping off to staging with a wave.

Frankie continued to stare after him, motionless, until Nix slapped him upside the head and got up. “Come on. We will miss it if we don’t get out to the stands.” He took Frankie by the wrist, pulling him roughly towards the exit.

* * *

“And that was Xavier Fisk, the second boy being taught at this rink for the upcoming professional season!” the announcer called out. Fish made his way off the ice with a wave and blowing a kiss, which earned him a lot of screams and a few catcalls from the audience.

He made his way back into changing room and watched as Nix and Frankie ran through the doors and up to him.

“FISH! That was AMAZING!” Frankie screamed, his voice rising higher than it ever had before. Fish laughed, leaning away from Frankie’s hold and pushing him off.

“Watch it. You’ll ruin the perfection. I need this beauty to last until tonight,” Nix and Frankie backed off, allowing for Fish to get changed. The three chattered as he changed, commenting on how well Fish had pulled off the program’s focus on femininity in its different forms.

“You know, I really wish Coach Yuuri got to see us. I haven’t seen him at all today!” Fish whined as he closed his locker, turning to face the other two.

Nix nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but he is probably extremely busy. I heard Phichit tell Chris earlier that Yuuri is running all over the place managing everything. He’s got on a headset and everything,” Nix explained, moving his hands from where they were placed over his chest.

“I guess we'll just have to hope Phichit has videos we can show him later,” Frankie said. Suddenly all three boys stopped, turning to look at each other before nodding in unison.

“Phichit definitely has videos.”

* * *

“Are you nervous?” the man on the headset in the staging area whispered to Nix as he stood waiting. He was up next and after getting mauled by Fish and Frankie before leaving, he was feeling better than he ever had before a competition. But he was still anxious. He wished he could see his Coach one last time. Or that skater from last night. But most of the famous skaters were performing after 8 that night so the most people could see them, so he wouldn’t be able to see the person’s performance until then.

He began to bounce on his skates, feeling jittery. It was extremely dark in the staging area, much like the backstage of a theatre, with only the light of the computer screen in the corner and the lights on the headsets able to be seen.

Nix heard the applause for the skater before him, announcing the end of her performance and moved to stand by the flap which led to the rink. He felt a hand grab him by the shoulder and jumped when he heard the voice of his Coach. “Good luck Phoenix. Be the skater I know you to be.”

He turned to look behind him, but it was too late. He was pushed out onto the ice by his coach and soon, the first chords of “Confident” were playing and he was beginning to skate.

* * *

“Amazing! Ladies and Gentleman that was Phoenix Aisner, the last of the three boys preparing for next season. He landed a startling three different types of Quads, four total, one of which was the rink owner, Victor Nikiforov’s specialty, the Quad Flip!” The announcer yelled out excitedly as Nix exited the rink.

He felt like he was in a daze as he entered the changing room and began to remove his outfit. He barely registered as he was tackled to the ground by multiple bodies. It took him a few moments to realize that not only Nix and Frankie had tackled him, but Chris and Phichit as well.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?! YOU’VE BEEN MESSING UP ALL WEEK DURING PRACTICE BUT YOU NAIL IT DURING THE REAL THING?! WHAT IS YOUR DEAL PHOENIX AISNER?!” Fish screamed in his ear, grabbing at his shirt and shaking him back and forth. Nix went boneless, allowing the short Latino man to pull him back and forth until Frankie grabbed his hands, releasing him from his grip.

“Fish! You are gonna give him a concussion! We need him for the program later!” Frankie cried, pulling Fish back. Nix got up, amidst a chorus of compliments and yelling. He barely registered most of it, and after nodding back a few times, made his way to leave the changing room to get away from all the noise.

He made his way down the hallway, entering one of the rooms used for ballet and shut the door behind him. He sank down against the wall, bringing his knees up to his chest and breathing for what felt like the first time in the last twenty minutes.

Quietly, he heard someone open and close the door to the room and felt someone sit down next to him. He felt someone poke him with something and turned to see Yurio sitting next to him, drink in his hand. He offered it again before saying, “Here. You need it.” Nix took it, muttering out a quiet thanks and began to sip on it

He dipped his head back, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Yurio spoke. “You know, I used to do the same thing after doing my programs. I would stick around for pictures and interviews, but the second I could get away, I would find a quiet place and sit down.”

“Really?” Nix asked, voice raw.

“Mhm. It's like...There’s all these faces, all these people watching you and all this noise. It just gets...overwhelming sometimes.” Yurio breathed out, moving to rest his arms on his knees and placing his cheek on top.

“So it's normal? Even after I did well?” Nix asked, turning to look at Yurio. Yurio stared out into the darkness of the room for a moment before nodding.

“Especially when you do well.”

They sat in the quiet for a few more minutes before slowly, Yurio stood up and offered Nix a hand. “Come on boy, the other two idiots are probably looking for you.” Nix nodded, taking the hand offered to him and standing up with a smile.

“Thank you, Yuri.”

* * *

A few hours later, Nix, Fish and Frankie find themselves in the staging rink. Together, they had sat in the stands and watched all the other skaters perform, with Otabek and Yurio even doing a duet to “Miss Jackson” by Panic! at the Disco that was clearly thrown together last minute and more about having fun. About halfway through, Chris and Phichit had come on the ice, crashing their program and turning it into more of a jump off than anything. It was still entirely fun and more than entertaining enough, if the pouring in of donations was anything to go by.

The trio were more than excited to watch all the famous skaters, as they were just like their coach had described. All specialized in different styles and moves, but it was clear from watching them that all were world-class level skaters, once the top of the what the world had to offer.

They hear the first chords of Victor’s piece begin to play and scramble to stick their heads out of the flap slightly to watch. It’s like watching a celestial spirit move about the ice, his silver hair trailing behind him as he moves through his movements with a complete precision. It's like watching a master blacksmith working at his forge, and the three are entranced, unable to look away.

They barely register, the ending of the song before Victor is skating towards them and exiting the ring.

“Oh! Boys! Finally I get to see you!” Victor calls out to them, walking towards them in the darkness.

“Are you excited to skate the trio program Yuuri and I choreographed? We spent so many weekends working out the kinks!” Victor explained, smiling as he reached them.

The three boys stood frozen, and Victor mistook their silence for nervousness. “Oh don’t worry! They are going to fix the rink real quick before the last few programs! It's gotten pretty torn up, especially after that lot of competing fools doing all the jumps,” Victor said sourly, crossing his arms.

The three boys continued to stare as Victor laughed awkwardly and pulled them all into a tight hug, “I am so excited to see you three perform. Yuuri has kept me updated regularly with all your work!”

Finally, Fish broke and turned to look at Victor with wide-eyes, “Wait? Yuuri texts you…? About us?”

Victor gives him a confused look, resting his cheek on his hand as he crosses his arms. “Well, of course he does. He sends me videos and pictures of you three everyday practically! And on the weekends he tells me in person all about what you’ve done that week! He is very fond of you three. He calls you ‘his boys’, but don’t tell him I said that!” Victor whispered the end, putting his hand up to his mouth.

The three boys go to protest when the sound of the machine leaving the rink reaches them and they are ushered towards the opening. “DAVAI!” Victor yells out to them as they go, waving to them with a large smile.

* * *

“Wow! You saw it here folks! A trio skating routine with pairs moves and some new ones we’ve never seen before! This is the first time we have seen something like this attempted! That piece was performed by Xavier Fisk, Francis Barbetti, and Phoenix Aisner!” The announcer’s voice booms over them as the three teenagers bow to the crowd, waving with wide smiles on their faces. They managed to do the entire performance without missing any of the passes and landing all their individual jumps.

The three skate quickly to the changing room, knowing they will have to take their skates off quickly if they will be able to make it back for the ending of the charity event. Victor had made it a point to watch, as “someone you know” would be performing. It left the three boys confused, but knowing Victor, it was something they wouldn’t want to miss.

The three boys scrambled to throw on their shoes, not even stopping to change out of their outfits before throwing on their jackets and running out of the change room to get to the stands. They barely make it to the stands when suddenly a single person skates out onto the ice.

“Guys! That’s him!” Nix calls out, pulling on the two boys arms and pointing to the ring.

“Who?!” Fish asks, leaning forward in excitement.

“The guy! The one I saw last night!” Nix exclaims, sitting forward in his seat and putting his hands crossed between his legs.

All three boys sit in excitement, waiting for the man to start when suddenly the announcer speaks.

“And our final performance of the night will be by Three-Time World Champion, Two-Time Olympic Gold medalist, and head coach of this rink, Yuuri Katsuki-Nikiforov!”

The three boys froze, unmoving, as their coach began to skate. The same Italian music Nix had heard the night before began to play over the loudspeakers and they watched in awe as he began.

Yuuri was lighter than air, floating graceful and powerful across the ice and banging out record-breaking worthy step-sequences with ease. The trio barely breathed as they watched, unable to process what they were seeing. Their once chunky and disheveled stern coach had turned into this miracle of a skater, someone so amazing, it seemed like you were watching a movie and not real life.

Suddenly, the music change and the crowd began to cheer louder as a second set of skates entered the rink.  The pair watched as Victor himself moved across the ice towards their coach, and together, they skated, moving like they were not two men but rather, a single, being.

They were two celestial forces, spinning and moving in tandem. They were gods, not men and they enraptured all with every move of their bodies. They did lifts, perfectly, as if they had been pair skaters their entire life. Even the most professional of pair skaters had nothing on them, their movements so ingrained in their bodies, they could probably perform the entire program blind.

Slowly, the song came to an end and the moved into a final position, before suddenly, Victor dipped Yuuri low and kissed him straight on the mouth. The crowd let out a cacophony of cat calls, whistles and cheers as Victor lifted Yuuri back up and skated to the center of the rink, hand-in-hand.

“And that was the signature pair skate, performed by Yuuri Katsuki-Nikiforov and his husband, five-time consecutive World Champion, one-time gold and two-times silver Olympic medalist, and owner of this rink, Victor Nikiforov!”

The crowd broke out into deafening applause, giving the pair a standing ovation. Suddenly, Yurio skated out onto the ice, a microphone in hand and threw it at Victor in a huff, who laughed. Victor, holding Yuuri against him around his shoulder, lifted the mic up.

“Both Yuuri and I would like to thank you all for coming tonight and for all of those watching at home. Together, we have raised over $400,000 dollars for disabled children, so please give yourselves a round of applause,”  the crowd clapped loudly, cheering and Victor waited until they quieted down to continue.

“I would also like to thank all of the skaters, professional or not, who skated and made today possible! Give our skaters a round of applause!” Victor called out, setting off another round of loud cheering. Victor waved to the crowd, smiling, along with Yuuri who was waving shyly.

“And lastly, I would like to thank my wonderful husband, Yuuri, who made all of this come together. Without his insane planning for the past month and his managing backstage today, we could have never pulled this off. Thank you moya lyubov,” Victor stated, before leaning down to kiss Yuuri on the top of his head. Yuuri let out a startled ‘Vitya!’, which was picked up by the mic before the crowed cheered loudly one last time.

Victor raised his hand in a wave, calling out a loud, “Good night everyone!” before skating over to the exit, leading Yuuri with his arm around his shoulder.

* * *

“So boys, what did you think of your lovely coach? Absolutely divine right?” Victor said, making his way up to where the three boys were sitting in the stands.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They’ve been sitting there frozen ever since Yuuri got on the ice,” Chris said, looking at them concerned.

Yuuri, who was coming up the stairs behind Victor, shot the boys a concerned look and came to stand in front of them. “Boys? Is everything alright?”

Simultaneously, the three boys slowly lifted their heads to look at their coach before all hell broke loose. They let out a chorus of hellish sounding screeches before all three leapt forward at their coach, throwing questions left and right.

“YOU WENT TO WORLDS?!” Fish screeched, putting his hands on his head and rubbing at his hair roughly.

“YOU HAVE AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL!?” Frankie yelled out at almost the same time, moving his hands up and down like a robot repeatedly as he blinked rapidly.

“VITYA, YOUR HUSBAND, IS VICTOR FUCKING NIKIFOROV?!” Nix screamed after a moment, grabbing his coach’s shirt and shaking him incessantly. Yuuri put his hands up defensively, waving them back and forth as Victor stepped forward and pulled Nix’s hand off his husband’s shirt.

“What are you three going on about?” Victor called out, crossing his arms and turning his head to the side in confusion. The three boys stopped, turning to face Victor.

“COACH YUURI IS LIKE A SKATING LEGEND! WE THOUGHT HE WAS LIKE SOME DUDE RAISED BY MONKS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF JAPAN AND HIT BY STICKS!” Fish screamed, flapping his arms about wildly. The two other boys stood by, nodding their heads in agreement frantically.

“Wait, hold up, you three didn’t know who Katsudon was?” Yurio asked from where he stood, eyes wide. The three books shook their heads and suddenly he broke off into loud laughter, falling back and laying across the stands.

“You three,” he said, still dying laughing, “have got to be the biggest idiots,” he choked on his own spit, but continued to laugh, “I have EVER met. Leave it to Katsudon to find a trio of idiots to coach!” He continued to laugh, holding his sides, as Otabek patted him lightly on the shoulder with a barely concealed smile.

“Yuuri.” Victor said sternly, turning to face his husband and giving him a pointed look. Yuuri jumped, looking sheepish, before turning and trying to leave. Victor stuck his hand out, snatching his coat in his grip and pulling him back next to him.

“I thought you got over this!” Victor whined, bringing his hands up to his face and rubbing at his temple. Yuuri began to kick as his shoes nervously, refusing to look up.

“I just don’t like talking about myself. It's...awkward,” Yuuri muttered. Victor bopped him on the head lightly before crossing his arms across his chest again.

“I went over this with you! It’s not bragging! You are an olympic champion babe! Be confident!” Yuuri nodded at him, still looking awkward before Victor sighed and reached out for him. He pulled him into a hug, kissing him on the head before looking at the three boys with a smile.

“Well, since Yuuri didn’t tell about himself, I guess I will have to!” Victor said excitedly. Yuuri punched him in the ribs lightly before yelling, “Vitya!” and walking away. He began to go down the stairs and paused for a moment.

“Come on boys; let’s go get ice creams at the 24 hour mcdonald’s,” Yuuri called back. The three boys paused, looking at each other for a few moments before nodding and running off towards their coach. “Yes Coach Yuuri!” they called out in unison.

“Hey! Babe! Why didn’t you invite me? Do you love them more than me?” Victor whined, hand outstretched towards his husband.

Yuuri stopped, turning to smirk back at his childish husband. “Yes. I do.”

“YUURI! I’M HEARTBROKEN! YURIO! HE BROKE MY HEART! AGAIN!” Victor wailed, leaning on Yurio next to him.

“SHUT UP OLD MAN! OI! KATSUDON! BRING ME WITH YOU!” Yurio called out, pushing Victor off him with a huff and running after him.

“Hai, hai. You are all welcome to come. Except you Victor. You can walk,” Yuuri called back, now walking away from the stands. Phichit, Chris and Otabek let out varying degrees of excitement and made their way around Victor to follow after Yuuri.

“BABE! HOW COULD YOU?!” Victor cried out, dropping to his knees like an extra queen and sobbing.

* * *

**EPILOGUE**

Yuuri was running behind today, after having struggled to get out of bed with Victor holding him in a vice grip. Today his new class of preteens was starting, not exactly professional level yet, but perhaps on their way and he wanted to set a good example by being on time. So much for first impressions.

He entered the rink with a huff, pushing the door open and making his way to the stands. He put on his skates lethargically, before taking off his coat and making his way onto the ice. The class wasn’t overly large, only ten or so kids, but enough that Yuuri would need to stay aware.

Off in the other end of the ring, he saw his three boys, whom he had allowed to have an extra skate time if they agreed to stay out of the way. The three of them were currently working on a new trio program, which they planned to show off in exhibition for whoever got on the podium at World’s.

Not surprisingly, all three boys have been chosen to represent America, as they had all come into their own after the four years they had spent under his wing. In his opinion, they were all brilliant, world-class level skaters and he was proud to say he had helped them get there.

Yuuri sighed as he made it to the center of the rink and stopped, crossing his arms across his chest and tiredly beginning to introduce himself as Coach Yuuri and stating what they would be doing in the class. He noticed the three boys getting closer, but continued on, detailing how often they would meet and at what times, as well as the rink rules.

Suddenly, he saw Fish lift a kid up by the back of his sweatshirt, holding him an entire foot off the ground. Fish had experienced a growth spurt almost two years ago, something he constantly boasted about after he passed Nix. Frankie had grown some, making him still the tallest, something he constantly boasted about to Fish. Some things never changed.

“What the hell do you think you are saying punk?” Fish said, peering down at the kid with a scowl. The kid flailed, kicking his feet and Yuuri sighed, about to ask what the hell Fish was doing with his student when Fish continued.

“Do you have any idea who that ‘scruffy, fatty’ is? Huh punk?” Fish spat, glaring at the kid and getting up in his face. Yuuri’s eyebrow rose. He had heard some murmuring from the kids as he spoke but had been more focused on detailing the rules than to focus on what they were saying.

Nix leant down as well, getting his face even closer than Fish. He looked like some sort of punk, having fully accepted his edgier, more confident side and getting more piercings on his ears. He had even dyed his bangs white, and shaved lines into his undercut. Overall, he looked like a punk, even though in reality he was probably the best behaved of them all.

“That,” he started pointing to Yuuri, who was standing with his arms crossed and head tipped slightly to the side, “is Yuuri motherfucking Katsuki-Nikiforov, a multiple time world champion and two-time olympic gold medalist. That ‘scruffy, fatty’ could out skate you any day and probably will for the rest of your life,” he finished, glaring at the child for a moment before backing away.

Fish slowly lowered the kid to the ground, releasing his hold, as Frankie bent down, his glasses dropping to the end of his nose and looking at the kid with a neutral expression, “Apologize. Now.” The kid jumped, nodding frantically before skating over to Yuuri and getting on his knees in front of him.

“I’m sorry I called you a ‘scruffy, fatty’ Coach Yuuri! Please forgive me,” Yuuri looked down at the kid with an exasperated look, telling him it was okay and to get up before sighing and taking off his glasses. He ran his hand down his face, sighing before turning to look at his boys.

“How long until you three stop threatening my students?” Yuuri deadpanned, looking at the trio who didn’t look sorry at all.

“As soon as you start embracing your amazingness Coach,” Fish said, skating past him and patting him on the shoulder. Frankie shrugged his shoulders, taking off across the rink and doing a quick triple salchow in the process.

Nix skated up to Yuuri, stopping next to him and crossing his arms. “You really need to speak up for yourself Dad.”

Yuuri huffed, waving Nix off and motioning to the other end of the rink. “You sound just like your Father. Don’t make me reverse adopt you.”

Nix began to laugh, skating off in the process, “As if Dad.”

Yuuri finished explaining the rules to the group of kids, sending them off with a stern command to work on spins before moving to lean against the rink, watching over the kids and calling out to them with adjustments.

Yuuri Katsuki-Nikiforov is a head coach, a multiple-time world champion, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and husband of Victor Nikiforov. But he is also the “father” of three unruly man children, one of whom, who actually became his own. He sometimes thinks he did things a little backwards, becoming a world champion, getting married, and then getting a son. But that’s alright by Yuuri, as long as he gets to continue watching his ‘boys’ grow into amazing, world-class professional skaters.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thats all she wrote folks! This was insane to work on and I am so happy with how it came out! I hope you did too! I planned on making this about the same size as the last chapters but I ended up getting really excited about it and just adding a bunch of extra moments in. 
> 
> Come yell at my sister and I on tumblr about pretty much anything anime @glitteryimagay
> 
> Again, thanks so much for reading! <3


End file.
